Beyond Unleashed
by Biagotmilkandjelly
Summary: SonicX meets Sonic unleashed! There's romance, action, suspense, horror, everything! With every chapter containing excitement, there's never a dull moment. The heroes are being put into situations they haven't had to deal with before, will they prevail? Or will the blue speedster give up on himself and his friends? Read to find out! (Sonamy, shadouge) rated T for violence and lang.
1. Chapter 1- Cosmo

**Author's Note:**

**With credit to Misha Shteyman, my brother Matthew, my dad for introducing me to video games, and of course, to Sega and 4kids for this story**

**The first three chapters of this story aren't leading into one another, the all start at around the same time, so don't get too confused, just think about them as three separate starts to the same story.**

**There is a description of where this story starts in chapter two, so just skip to that chapter for the beginning if you do not know what Sonic X is about. But be sure to come back to this chapter!**

**I've also been told that the plot is confusing in this chapter, so I've improved it, and added guidelines in italics to clear up some viewpoint changes.**

Chapter one- Cosmo

**_Cosmo in the future thinking back_**

It was all my fault really, if I had never bothered Sonic and his friends to help me fight the Metarex in the first place, then we never would have ended up in this mess. Tails tells me that I shouldn't blame myself, and that no one could have predicted this happening, but I can't help feeling that this is all on me.

This whole nightmare started when we had to head back to Sonic's planet with the Metarex on our tail. We needed some sort of shelter and we desperately required more supplies. The blue typhoon had taken a lot of damage, and if we got cornered by any enemy, the shields most likely wouldn't hold up. Tails needed to perform repairs; we needed to collect supplies; and Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy (our fighters) needed some well deserved rest. We thought; "What better shelter than our own home?" So we started to head back.

We knew the Metarex (an army of evil robots that had destroyed my home planet, and were ruled by Dark Oak and his three main commanders, Pale Bay Leaf, Black Narcissus, and Yellow Zelkova) had teamed up with Doctor Eggman, and they were working together to search the universe for us. We realised that we had to be discreet, but Eggman had been waiting for us to head back to Mobius. We tripped alarms he had set up in case we decided to return, and before we knew it, he and the Metarex were right on top of us.

**_Switches to present tense (flash-back)_**

I woke up when all our alarms went off. All of them. It was overpoweringly loud. I held my hands over my ears as I ran to the control room (still in my nightgown) to see what was going on.

When I got there I saw Sonic and our other friends in the middle of an argument with doctor Eggman, who was on the screens. There were two other Mobians with the doctor, one on each side. The first was an ebony hedgehog with red stripes on his quills, who looked rather bored and disinterested, but also terrifying at the same time. The other one was an ivory bat with black wings and a black one-piece bodysuit that had a heart-shaped chest plate, she looked like she was bursting with things to say and just barely holding herself back, she didn't look like the kind of person with very nice things to say though, and she rolled her eyes a lot. The alarms had been turned off on my way to the room.

The doctor said something about how we were doomed to lose this one. I was afraid, he sounded really confident.

"Oh yeah? You and what army?" Mister Sonic replied aggressively. He was an amazing leader, it was only because of his determination and fearlessness that we had made it this far in the fight against the Metarex.

The doctor was ready with an answer. "Well, I am actually glad that you asked that, Sonic. _This_ army." He disappeared from the screen and his icon went up.

Everything was silent for a while, Sonic started impatiently tapping his foot. After almost eight minutes, the screens turned back to the live image of the doctor, who looked very happy about something.

"Sonic the hedgehog, behold your doom." He gloated

But nothing happened, at least not right away.

"I'm waiting, Eggman!" Sonic shouted impatiently in reply.

Eggman didn't seem to be worried, he just stayed where he was very contentedly waiting for whatever was coming. Then, something did come. Seconds after Sonic's reply, massive Metarex armada ships started to appear.

All of our alarms went off again, and the resulting cacophony was enough to shatter anyone's thoughts. Tails and Chris scrambled to shut them off, but one thing was clear; the alarms were warning us about the 'large mass of Metarex approaching'. The message was flashing on all of the screens.

The doctor said something else about letting us live if we surrendered, but I was paying no attention. I was staring in horror at the multiplying number of ships outside. There were so many, it reminded me of when my own species was attacked. There were more ships than this, there were so many of their ships, and only one of ours. Albeit an amazingly strong and powerful one. We were surrounded on all sides, then and now. This situation just felt too familiar, I was freaking out. Luckily, I was pulled out of my déjà vu nightmare by Sonic's voice.

"I will never surrender to you, Egg-Butt!" he yelled confidently. It made me feel better knowing that Sonic wasn't afraid.

All around me, my friends started to agree with Sonic and let him know that we all supported him.

"I'm here for you!" I reminded him in a quiet voice after Cream's pet chao had voiced its encouragement.

Even after all of us had pretty much told the fat doctor that we would all fight with Sonic to the end, he did not look the least bit intimidated, or even fazed.

"I was hoping you would say that." He told us joyfully. "Now this is going to be so much more fun! Watch out, because I'm not going to go easy on you! Now, Crimson Egg! Fire all weapons!" He finished triumphantly. We all braced ourselves for the attack when the screens all went back to normal, but none came. Tails had been busy during the conversation with Eggman, and the attack was blasted out of space. However, our defences were not prepared for the millions of shots fired from the Metarex warships that followed. Eggman's attack had acted as a signal. The ambush attack had begun.

Our shields held off the energy beams for about ten minutes before they failed.

Tails and Chris began typing away like mad, trying to get the shields back up and the weapons ready for the next wave of missiles. Sonic and Knuckles had run outside the ship and were doing their best to keep the Metarex soldiers that had arrived at bay. Amy was running out to the deck to help them. Cream was following instructions from Tails to get certain materials for him. I was just standing there, dumbfounded that we were caught. It didn't look good, to say the least.

"Cosmo! Our weapons won't be enough! I need you to go get the chaos emeralds from the X-Tornado and bring them to Sonic!" Tails yelled over the cacophony of weapons outside.

That jolted me out of my daze, Tails needed me. "Of course Tails! I'm on my way!"

"Hey! Can you also bring Knuckles in here for a moment? I need him to activate the Master Emerald!" Tails added.

"Sure thing!"

"Thanks, Cosmo."

And I left. I ran as fast as my feet would carry me to the X-Tornado. I arrived at the cargo bay where the plane was resting. It was a huge room full of electronics and weapons. In the centre of it all was Tails' amazing airplane that shined in the lights. In a corner of the room was a big machine with a giant green emerald called 'the master emerald', it too gleamed brightly, but not from the lights, it had a light all of its own.

"Oh, which panel are they in..." I mused worriedly to myself as i searched for the emeralds.

I found a panel on the X-tornado with the edges glowing faintly that gave off a warm feeling, so I opened it up. The emeralds were inside. I started to take them out, and just as I secured them all in my embrace, I heard a loud BOOM! coming from the front of the ship.

"That doesn't sound too good. I better hurry; I really hope nobody is hurt!" I worried while sprinting back to the front of the Blue Typhoon and trying not to drop the seven emeralds.

As I arrived at the front, I was relieved to find that nobody was truly hurt, if the people outside _were_ a bit worse for wear. I ran outside, and saw Sonic spin dashing three Metarex at once, while Knuckles was doing his best to take out the Metarex with his fists, and Amy was right next to Sonic, smashing the Metarex left and right with her huge Piko-Piko hammer.

"Mister Knuckles! Tails needs you at the master emerald! And Sonic! Catch!" I yelled as I threw the seven emeralds with all my might at the blue hedgehog. And for the few milliseconds it took for the emeralds to fly from my arms to around Sonic, he was distracted, and failed to stop one single Metarex from hitting its target.

**Author's note:**

**The next chapters are already out, because I have updated this chapter to fix capitalisation, details, and plot confusion, be sure to comment, follow, and read the rest of the story!**


	2. Chapter 2- Eggman

**Author's note:**

**Hey guys, thanks for the views and comments/reviews, this is chapter two, it tells the story in same time span as Cosmo, but this time, I's from Eggman's team's point of view! There is one more chapter like this, and then we (finally) get on with the story, this one is longer, so get comfortable. I really want some reviews about my characterization and plot skills (I want to know if I have any, and I'm worried that I didn't do very good with ) don't worry, this will all make sense once I get to chapter four. This fanfic is based more towards people who have seen sonic x series two, but if other people would like to understand what is going on, here is a summary of where this story is starting:**

**This is from sonic x on 4kids series 2 (season 3). This story starts just before the episode where Eggman helps the Metarex attack sonic and his team on the blue typhoon and they have a star shield that repulses all Sonic's attacks until tails comes up with a plan that allows him to escape (episode 70 "the Eggman fleet appears!"). There are a few changes though, the team is going back to their planet for supplies, and they have all seven chaos emeralds, instead of Eggman's team having two. In case you don't know what the Metarex are, here is a link describing them and another describing the series:**

**wiki/Metarex**

**wiki/Sonic_X**

* * *

**Chapter Two-Eggman**

"Arrrgh! Where could they have gone?! I'm losing my patience!"

Sonic always manages to ruin his plans. He and his friends had trumped him over and over, and now, they had just completely disappeared from the universe. He was about to give up on finding that pesky hedgehog and his annoying friends and go back to working on his ingenious plan to take over the universe from the Metarex after they did all the dirty work for him.

He had started to get to work on hacking their databases to find out exactly how they planned to accomplish this enormous task when a little red bulb started flashing in the corner of his vision. Never the one to ignore any equipment he'd designed, he took a better look at the device. It was labeled: "significantly large object making its way towards Mobius"

_It's probably just some space junk or a satellite._ He thought to himself, _but then again, if that pest has taught me anything, it's that paying attention to details is crucial. _He grudgingly admitted this to himself, not that he would ever admit it to the blue rodent. _I better check, just to make sure._

So he pulled up the cameras that recorded the area where the alarm was going off.

The view that met his eyes surprised him to say the least, and then a malevolent smile crept onto his mustached face.

"Boco! Decoe! Alert the Metarex that we have spotted the hedgehog and his colleagues! Bokkun! Tell Rouge and Shadow to get up here now! Their services are needed!" He commanded.

"Right away, Eggman!" The three bots unanimously replied, then ran off to complete their respective tasks.

Then Eggman settled into his luxurious egg-shaped command chair already planning his speech for when he saw the blue hedgehog.

~~~~~~~~~~**switch to dark Oak (metarex leader) P.O.V.**

"Lord Dark Oak, sir, there were just two robots on the communicator informing us that Doctor Eggman has pinpointed Sonic and his friends' location. What are your orders?" A small Metarex messenger android scurried in.

"Hm, I don't trust that Eggman buffoon to not mess things up, so send all our fleets in the area, and send Yellow Zelkova as well. Oh, and also, send that new shield gadget that the doctor invented, are the modifications to it complete?" Dark Oak, the leader of the Metarex demanded.

"The modifications to the star shield are complete lord, the shield now runs on the power of the fake chaos emeralds that we have manufactured. The power capacity has increased by 62 percent." the bot reported.

"Good... Very good... Well, there is never a better time than the present, let's test it out, shall we?" Oak mused, "send that shield, and make sure to send plenty of ships to take them out, by the end of this day, I want those pests gone!" He thundered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~**switch back to Eggman P.O.V**

The huge 'Crimson Egg' spaceship was the first to arrive on the scene. In camouflage of course, as Eggman did not want to draw attention to himself just yet. He was willing to wait a bit longer for the rest of the Metarex to arrive. He had his speech to the blue menace ready, if he ever got close enough to say it. He had already hacked into the 'Blue Typhoon's' camera network, and was spying on the hedgehog and his friends.

"HO! HO! HO! HO! HO! They don't suspect a thing! We could attack now and they would be completely caught off guard!" Eggman gleefully boasted.

"Don't go bragging just yet, doctor. Those guys have gotten out of tighter situations than this." Rouge reminded him.

Shadow was standing behind the two of them, arms crossed and eyes closed. He seemed to be deep in thought.

"Come on Shad, don't look so glum, we're on the winning side, remember?" Rouge teased.

"I know," Shadow stated, still with his eyes closed, "but doctor, you promised to help me with my memories, and yet I still know nothing about my past. Sonic and his friends seem to know who I am, so you can see that I might be reluctant to obliterate them without having learned anything of value."

"Yes, yes, Shadow, we all know about your recent amnesia," at this, shadow opened his eyes to deem Eggman with one of his infamous death glares. "But," the doctor continued hastily, "I _have_ been working on your memories, but the brain, especially the bit to do with memories; is... tricky... to say the least. And I _have_ told you who you are; you are 'project Shadow', the Ultimate Life Form, an invention of my grandfather Gerald Robotnik. You were meant to be used as a weapon for the Government until the president became paranoid and sent GUN up to the space colony ARK to destroy it. There, happy now?"

"Not particularly, but I suppose that's enough for now..." Shadow yet again closed his eyes, "If you need me," he pulled out his new fake chaos emerald the Metarex had lent him and deftly tossed it up and caught it, "you know where I'll be, _Chaos Control!_" and Shadow was gone in a flash of light.

"Well, he certainly knows how to drain the excitement out of a room, doesn't he?" Rouge said.

"Mm-Hm, I don't know what I'm going to do if I ever lose control of him, honestly. Even though he's on our side for now, I'm more wary of him than I am of sonic or any of his friends." Eggman mused.

"You should be, I wouldn't like to think about being up against_ that_ Hedgehog." Rouge agreed.

The communicator beeped, signaling Yellow Zelkova's arrival.

"Ah, he is here, _finally_. Now the fun can begin!" Eggman shouted exuberantly before pressing the button to answer the communicator.

Rouge rolled her eyes at the doctor's excitement.

Eggman composed himself, "Well hello commander Zelkova, I assume your contacting me means that you are ready to attack?" he inquired.

"Nearly all our troops have arrived. In camouflage, like you requested. It seems your alarms came to good use after all Doctor." Zelkova stated.

"So, are we ready to get this party started?" Rouge interrupted.

"Silence rodent!" Yellow Zelkova boomed, "I have no patience for your kind, but yes, we are ready to begin the attack."

"I will not tolerate your abuse of my colleagues, Zelkova! Just because that blue hedgehog and the echidna beat you does not give you any right to insult my partners!" Eggman yelled back, then calmly asked, "Now, let's be civil about this, and start the attack, I wish to inform the hedgehog of our arrival myself. May I have permission to fire the first shot?"

Yellow Zelkova was shocked, but he quickly recovered, "Have it your way doctor, permission granted."

The screen went dark.

Eggman smiled tersely. "Well, Rouge, would you be so kind as to fetch Shadow for me? I want us all to be here when I start the attack." He requested politely.

"Ummm, sure, Eggman." Rouge was, for once in her life, at a loss for words. The doctor and Zelkova's shouting match had left her a bit stunned. She left swiftly to bring Shadow back up to the control room.

Eggman began his task of hacking into the enemy's ship so he could make his dramatic speech on their own screens.

~~~~~~~~**Switch to Rouge P.O.V.**

Rouge was confused.

Did Eggman just stand up for her? Better not to worry about it for now. Focus on the task at hand. Finding Shadow.

_Well, he said we'd know where to look for him, so..._

She turned the corner into another hallway. At the end of this hallway was a dimly lit room. She walked to the threshold quietly. The ceiling had a few hanging lights, and the entire room was made of stainless steel. The rivets were large, and spaced out between the panels of the metal. Some of the panels were slightly tarnished around the edges. The room was rather small, and the temperature was about 15 degrees cooler than the other rooms in the spaceship. In the center of the room was a metal pod with dimensions that would be just large enough to snugly carry a human child of around 12. It would carry someone about her own size perfectly. The thick glass cover to the pod stood open. Right next to the pod was a huge board of controls that were too confusing for Rouge to interpret, but it didn't matter because they were no longer operating, they had completed _their_ task. Which brought back to mind her own task.

Shadow was standing in front of these controls. The dark hedgehog was once again with his eyes closed, deep in thought.

He didn't notice Rouge as she nimbly walked in.

"Maria... Who are you? Why do I have this horrifying memory of you?" He was muttering under his breath.

Rouge snuck up behind him, and one of Shadow's ears perked up at the sound of her near-silent footsteps.

"Well, sorry to break up this party, but Eggman needs us up top, so let's go Shadow!" Rouge proclaimed.

Shadow opened his eyes. He didn't seem surprised. "What does he want now?"

"We're ready to begin the attack, and Eggman wants us there for the announcement." she replied.

"Huh, fine. I'll go, but don't expect any petty conversation." They started heading out of the room and down one of the numerous hallways aboard the spaceship.

"Don't worry, I don't" Rouge mumbled.

"I can hear you, you know…" Shadow complained.

"I know." Rouge replied with a smile. She loved messing with the grumpy hedgehog.

Shadow huffed, and walked faster. Rouge just grinned and took to the air to race him to the control room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Switch back to Eggman P.O.V.**

They were all at the cockpit together, Eggman had finished setting up communications and was ready to begin the attack.

"All right you two, _particularly _you, Rouge. Just let me do all the talking, this is going to be fairly short, I don't want to give them too much time to prepare." Eggman stated.

"Cross my heart, Doctor" Rouge unconvincingly replied.

Shadow just rolled his eyes. He knew the doctor enjoyed theatrics, and wasn't planning to join in the conversation anyways. He could really care less what happened to Sonic and his friends, as long as it didn't affect him.

Eggman wasn't pleased with Rouge's response, but he let it slide. It didn't matter, as long as he finally beat Sonic the Hedgehog.

He pressed the key to begin the communications, if he'd set this up correctly, (which he was sure he did,) this should make every screen aboard their 'Blue Typhoon' a broadcasting system for him to announce their doom. The camera started rolling with a satisfying beep.

Aboard the Blue Typhoon, every screen suddenly showed the team's nemesis' excited face.

"Well, hello Hedgehog, and company," Eggman added the latter as a side thought, but he was mostly focused on Sonic. He had set up his own screens to show the hedgehog and his friends wherever they happened to be on the ship. He'd even had the time to allow them to respond to his communications by taking over their own security cameras, sound and video. As he thought this his grin widened, and he watched the reaction of the animals to his sudden appearance.

"As you can see, I have located your elusive group. It was no simple task either," he lied, "but, nonetheless, you are now in my grasp."

"Oh yeah Eggman? What makes you think you can win? We aren't exactly helpless!" Sonic yelled back defiantly.

Eggman grimaced for a second before recomposing himself. That confident hedgehog always managed to get on his nerves.

"Well, hedgehog, this time, I believe that _I_ have the upper hand." He replied smugly.

"Oh yeah? You and what army?" The blue hedgehog responded equally as smugly.

"Well, I am actually glad that you asked, Sonic. This army." He shut off the recording for a minute and set the screens to show his icon.

He connected with Yellow Zelkova on his handheld communicator. "Hello, commander? Yes, I would like you to request that the ships come out of camouflage now. Yes, I _do _know what I'm doing. Very good. Thank you for your cooperation, fare well."

He restarted the recording, "Sonic the Hedgehog, behold your doom."

"I'm waiting, Eggman!" Sonic shouted back.

He saw the hedgehog on his screen waiting impatiently, tapping his foot. Then Eggman witnessed shock crossed the blue hedgehog's features as the fleets of Metarex ships appeared from seemingly nowhere surrounding the Blue Typhoon.

"Now Sonic, do you see how completely pointless opposing the Metarex and myself is? You cannot win this one. Surrender now, and perhaps we will allow you and your friends to live, as our captives of course."

He saw the hedgehog look uncertain for a moment, then he seemed find his resolve.

"I will never surrender to you, Egg-butt!" Sonic yelled defiantly, using his favorite insult for the doctor.

His friends piped in as well, yelling their resolve to never give up at the doctor.

Eggman was amused. "I was hoping you would say that. Now this is going to be _so_ much more fun! Watch out, because I'm not going to go easy on you! Now, Crimson Egg! Fire all weapons!"

The screens shut down as the spaceship diverted all power to the laser cannons, missiles, and various other weapons the doctor had designed. But Tails had been preparing during their conversation, and the attack was met with an equal counter-attack and none of the projectiles hit their mark. However, the animals weren't out in the clear just yet, as Eggman's first shot was a signal for all the other ships to start firing and begin sending out their troops. Millions of shots fired at the spaceship all at once. Hundreds of thousands of Metarex troops flew towards the ship in waves. Eggman almost felt bad for Sonic and his friends, then he remembered Sonic's smug smile before the screens went out. The pity evaporated instantly. The hedgehog had this coming.

The ship did fairly well at first, the shields held the Metarex at bay for a while, but then they faltered, their weapons systems shot down many an android, but for every one they took out, three more replaced it. The troops broke through the shields, it was at this point that Eggman began seeing the blue menace rocketing around the ship bashing as many as possible before deciding it was more crucial for him to defend the control center of the ship. He was keeping them at bay by the glass cockpit when knuckles ran out to help. Together, they started to push back at the oncoming wave of Metarex.

Eggman continued to fire at the ship, and used his cameras to keep a close eye on the action around Sonic.

A few minutes later, a disheveled, and sleepy looking Amy ran out with her enormous hammer and began attacking the Metarex with Sonic and Knuckles. The three of them were making real progress on the advancing waves of androids.

Then, only a minute or two later, the Seedrian, Cosmo, ran out carrying the seven chaos emeralds. As she neared Sonic, they started to glow in her arms.

Eggman saw her shout something, and throw the glowing gems at his nemesis. During the few milliseconds as they flew through the air, and started to surround the hedgehog, Sonic forgot to pay attention to the Metarex around him. Knuckles and Amy also looked over at their friend and leader.

One single Metarex made its way through their defense and found its mark.

**That's it for chapter two! Hope you enjoyed it! Expect chapter three soon! Comment, rate, favorite? At the very least, please tell me how I'm doing. I'm pretty proud of this one, let me know if I should be! If you like it, let your friends know! Lol, I sound like a commercial. Lol, l8r. *text talk***

**Sorry about the P.O.V. changes that weren't clear before, the website deletes my page breaks, so all the underscores I had dissapeared. Thats why I'm using the squiggly now!**


	3. Chapter 3- Sonic the Hedgehog

**Hey, thanks to all my friends for supporting me, and to Sega and 4kids for making this possible credit to the respective people that stuff I use belongs to and all that.**

**If you need a description for where the story is from, see Chapter 2.**

**That's it from me, enjoy!**

**For the first bit, you can just watch this:**

**watch?v=P92wur4qBqc**

* * *

**Chapter 3- Sonic the Hedgehog**

_I landed on the hull of the ship, flames burning at my back from the robot I'd recently smashed._

_Alarms started wailing around me. Some more robots appeared about 100 meters in front of me. The weapons went up. _

_"FIRE!" I heard my nemesis yell._

_I started running, all the missiles exploded just behind me._

_I ricocheted between droids in a blue streak. All of them now destroyed, I flew up in the air, landed, and hit the ship running. A huge purple robot in front of me tried to smash me as I ran under it. I spun it around and kept running as it exploded. Several more came directly in front. I spun through them, and sped up as they too, exploded. There was nothing left but shrapnel. _

_My nemesis jumped down to my level as I got closer to the command center. He was in a huge red suit of Mecha armor. _

_He shot his machine guns at me, but all of the bullets missed me by a hair. As I blasted through the wreckage, he shot at me again, but I leaped over the attack with ease. I jumped again and this time aimed directly at him._

_"Why you little…" I heard him growl from my position in the sky._

_He continued to shoot at me in the air, but managed to miss every time._

_I hit him and the Mecha smashed open like a tin can. My momentum took me down the passageway behind him. _

_He had escaped, and was already in another Mecha, shooting at me as I ran._

_Surprised, I took off up the wall to dodge. I scaled it no problem and continued to sprint down the tunnel to the control center._

_"You're not getting away!" Eggman threatened as he shot the hand of his Mecha down the hall to try and grab me._

_He succeeded, and I was yanked back to his ugliness._

_But, I had one more trick up my sleeve. Closing my eyes, I summoned the chaos emeralds to surround me. He tried in vain to cover me so I couldn't focus, but I was already Super Sonic._

_The machine's arms exploded under the sheer power radiating from my quills. I floated for a second, and then smashed the rest of his Mecha to bits._

_Realizing defeat, Eggman boosted out of his Mecha in his pod in a last-ditch effort to escape. His little hover-pod flew off down another hallway at top speed._

_Naturally, I followed him._

_I blasted through closed blast doors like they were paper, it felt great to be unstoppable._

_Eggman had set the ship to explode when he realized that he had lost this battle. But as the space-battleship detonated in a fiery inferno I only had eyes for the tiny pod zooming into another ship. I took a shortcut and flew straight through one of his fleet of space-battleships on my way to follow the doctor. It too blew up in my wake_

_We flew into the next ship, obviously his command ship, and he banged into the walls in his rush. His pod bumped one too many times, and he flew out of it and hit the floor hard._

_I burst up from the floor and saw him stutter "S-S-Sonic?! I-I'm sorry! R-Really! L-Look, go easy on me!" then he started groveling, it felt good to see the evil doctor admit defeat. "I'll turn over a new leaf, I swear! Just give me a chance!" he fell to the floor, bowing with his hands clasped together at my feet._

_I had to admit I was a bit surprised. "Well this is new. Showing remorse, Eggman? If you played nice, I wouldn't have to break all your toys." I added with some smugness._

_Then the doctor growled, and a button I hadn't noticed before appeared in his hand. Too fast for me to react, he pushed it down._

_"Gotcha!" he yelled triumphantly._

_I was trapped, some new device of the doctors that suppressed even my Super form's power. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't break free._

_The doctor laughed as he rose on a pedestal in the room. I turned to glare at him, expecting another long-winded speech about how he was going to take over the world this time, but screamed in surprise as I was met with a sudden burst of pain from all directions. I tried to take the pain, but it just grew, and soon it was too great for me to handle, and I yelled again._

_Somehow, Eggman had managed to change me back to my original form. And the chaos emeralds surrounded me in reverse. The ship opened up beneath me and my nemesis laughed yet again._

_"Oh, I've waited a long time for this!" he declared, "FIRE!"_

_The ship fired an intense purple blast at the planet below. _

_The earth below broke apart, and purple tendrils of energy radiated from it._

_"Whoooa!" the doctor admired his handiwork._

_ The pain continued and intensified, and one by one, the emeralds turned black and fell to the ground around me._

_The doctor laughed again. "Success! A brilliant success!"_

_The pain abruptly ended, but I was too spent to do anything about it._

_"It's just as the Gaia Manuscripts foretold!" he continued to boast. "The entity that was sealed within the planet has been awakened. Now I just need to harness its power. Eggman land will finally come to be! Nyah ha ha ha!"_

_"You've really… gone and done it this time, Eggman." My own voice was strange, deeper, and rougher than normal._

_"Ah, Sonic, that's a good look for you. Festive!" Eggman replied._

_What did he mean? I was still me, right? I didn't get too long to dwell on it because the doctor ejected me into space._

_"So long, Friend!" he mocked. A push of a button, and one of the glass walls opened._

_I was sucked into space towards the planet below with the dead chaos emeralds._

**END DREAM~**

Sonic the hedgehog woke up in a cold sweat.

"Oh, it was only a dream. Thank goodness!" he realized, relieved. Then he shuddered, "More like a nightmare. I must be really stressed to be dreaming about _that_ now. At least we're heading back towards Mobius where I can _finally_ stretch my legs a bit!" he remembered.

He looked over at the clock on his wall. It read: 5:43 a.m. _well, I'm not going to get any more sleep,_ he thought. _I might as well go see who's up and have some breakfast._

First, he headed towards the cafeteria where he grabbed a bowl of cheerios for his breakfast. He liked to eat them dry, so he skipped on the milk.

He took his bowl of cereal to the cockpit to see if Tails was up yet. He was guessing that the fox would go there if he was awake. His friend was always fussing over the ship's mainframe and diagnostics and such.

He found the kit typing away on his keyboard in the control seat.

"Hey Tails, how's it going?"

The fox jumped at the sound, he hadn't notice sonic come in. "Oh, hey sonic, you're up early, I'm ok, just improving the alarms system for when we land. We don't want anyone to be able to just fly off with our ship." The kit answered. "How are you?"

Sonic finished munching on a handful of Cheerios before replying. "I'm ok, just had a weird dream. Have you even slept, Tails?" he asked, noticing the rings under the fox's eyes.

"No, I've been working on the ship all night." The fox answered sheepishly. "But I've got a lot done on the weapons system, and we should be able to take an attack if one comes our way now!" Tails continued proudly.

"You really should get some sleep; it's not good to be awake all night. What if we were attacked right now? You need to be rested, anything could happen." Sonic chastised the fox.

"I know, Sonic. It's just, I don't want to leave this ship defenseless, I promise to get a lot of sleep once we land back on Mobius." He assured his best friend.

"You better, I'll make sure of it. Speaking about attacks, is it just me, or do you think it's strange that we haven't heard much from Eggman or the Metarex lately?" He inquired.

"Yeah, Sonic, I expected them to at least pass by this area or something, but I guess they really didn't anticipate us to head back home. It looks like restocking and repairing our ship is not going to be a problem." The fox said with a grin.

"That's good, but it feels almost eerie…" the hedgehog replied.

"What does?" Knuckles entered the room with a half-eaten granola and raisin bar in his hand.

"Hey Knuckles!" Sonic greeted the echidna. "We were wondering how come we haven't heard much from Eggman or the Metarex lately. What are you doing up?"

"Humph, I don't care much for either of them. They're just lucky they've kept their distance." He retorted. "And I don't know much about you hedgehogs, but I'm an early riser, I'm always up before 6."

"Ok, take it down a notch knuckles, we don't want you getting a big head about yourself." Sonic teased the short-tempered echidna.

"Who are you calling big headed?!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Jeeze, Knuckles, I was only joking. You don't have to go and blow your top like that."

The echidna silently fumed, but didn't get a chance to reply as all the monitors suddenly showed Eggman's mustached face.

"Well, hello hedgehog, and company" their nemesis began on the screen.

Sonic was surprised. _What the heck? Well, I guess it's about time he showed his ugly face._

"As you can see, I have… Blah Blah Blah… you are now in my grasp." The annoying doctor drawled.

Sonic thought this was a fine time to let the doctor know that they could take whatever he could dish out.

"Oh yeah Eggman? What makes you think you can win? We aren't exactly helpless!" he retorted, remembering Tail's upgrades to the weaponry. He silently thanked the fox for his devotion to machinery.

Sonic noted that Eggman grimaced from his response with some pleasure, and grinned wider in reply.

"Well, hedgehog, this time, I believe that _I_ have the upper hand." Came the doctor's response.

_Pfft. _Sonic thought._ Yeah right, we always win._ "Oh yeah? You and what army?" he replied, not really expecting an answer.

But an answer came anyways. "Well, I am actually glad that you asked that, Sonic. _This _army."

And then the screen changed to the doctor's icon. _Typical, _Sonic thought, _go ahead and make me wait for your army of stupid robots._ He started tapping his foot.

A couple of minutes later, the screens turned back on, with Eggman looking very pleased with himself.

"Sonic the hedgehog, behold your doom." He said with relish

Nothing happened.

"I'm waiting, Eggman!" the hedgehog shouted impatiently.

_Really, the least he could do is actually make something happen._ Sonic was mentally complaining. _What could it be this time, invisible bugs?_

Then huge spaceships started appearing from nowhere around the ship. A dozen alarms went off above the three creatures' heads. Screens started flashing with the message: 'Large mass of Metarex nearby'

Sonic's first reaction was shock and fear. It was just part of his hedgehog nature to fear any threat. But he quickly subdued this reaction _I am the fastest thing alive, I cannot be stopped. _ He reminded himself.

He heard Eggman say something about surrendering and allowing him and his friends to live. He looked at his friends scared, but determined faces, and the ships still revealing themselves outside. He almost decided to let Eggman win this one, if his friends would at least be safe. But he saw the defiance in Tails' eyes and the fight in Knuckles' stance, and all doubt of whether they would win this fight evaporated from his mind.

"I will never surrender to you, Egg-Butt!" he yelled as defiantly as he could manage. He threw in his favorite insult to the doctor for good measure.

All around him, his friends started agreeing to his statement. Others on the ship had come to see what the commotion was about and many were still in their pajamas.

"We'll beat him, just like we always do, Sonic!" shouted Tails.

"I'm right behind you! I won't let you down!" Knuckles assured him.

"No need to worry! I'm by your side!" Amy yelled, still in her purple nightgown.

"I've got your back, Sonic!" Chris called out, his hair a mess.

"I'll help you Mr. Sonic!" Cream chimed in, her teddy bear in her arms.

"Chao! Chao!" her pet Cheese added excitedly.

"I'm here for you!" Cosmo chirped in a quiet voice.

Sonic was filled with newfound confidence, and gratitude for his friends. He saw their ashen, scared faces, but they masked them with confidence and courage for his sake. He felt a whole new level of appreciation for them.

This time, when he looked back to Eggman, there was no fear in his eyes; he glared straight into his nemesis' gaze with a burning resolve.

To his amazement, Eggman looked neither intimidated nor resigned, he looked… amused.

"I was hoping you would say that." His nemesis gleefully said. "Now this is going to be _so_ much more fun! Watch out, because I'm not going to go easy on you! Now, Crimson Egg! Fire all weapons!" He finished triumphantly. Sonic braced himself for impact when the screens all went back to normal, but none came. Tails had been busy during the conversation with Eggman, and the attack was blasted out of space. However, they were not prepared for the millions of shots from the Metarex warships that followed.

Sonic dashed out of the room as fast as possible to deflect as many missiles as he could. First, he took out the projectiles coming towards the glass control room's dome, and then he went around the ship to destroy the ones headed at the landing bay and the sleeping areas. People may not give him much credit for being able to think, but he did know what was important. He knew how to prioritize. The weaker energy blasts were deflected by the ship's energy shields. There were also Metarex troopers on jetpacks heading towards the ship, but they were held back by the shields for the time being.

Sonic dashed around the ship at nearly the speed at sound jumping and smashing missiles and the stray Metarex droid that made its way through the shields.

But that was before the shields failed.

At first, it was just a few energy blasts made their way through, but then, the whole force field flickered. Then it just disappeared.

Sonic was forced to head back to the glass dome to protect it from the waves of Metarex now attacking it.

All this happened within a matter of minutes. A couple of seconds later, Knuckles ran out to assist him. They started to push the waves back. It helped that the dome was small, and the Metarex could only come at it so many at a time.

A minute or two later, Amy ran out with her hammer, still in her nightgown, and started whacking away at the droids. They really started to make progress on the waves of battle robots now. And thank goodness, Tails managed to put up the shields again.

There was a loud boom as Tails shot at a missile that got too close and it exploded just over our heads. We were thrown back a few meters, and so were the Metarex in the area. We took advantage of the distraction, and used the time to fight off the other Metarex around the dome.

Cosmo ran out carrying the chaos emeralds. I was filled with relief at the sight. _Finally! We can get the upper hand!_

"Mister Knuckles! Tails needs you at the master emerald! And Sonic! Catch!" She shouted over the cacophony of robot warriors around us.

She threw the emeralds at me. I felt their warm glow as they began to encircle me. Their power made me feel unstoppable. I looked away from the battle for a fraction of a second; it wasn't like the robots could do anything to me at this point. But it wasn't me the made a break for.

Time seemed to slow down around me.

I watched in utter horror as one measly robot hit its mark, a robot that had I been paying attention, would have already been destroyed.

* * *

**All right! The story can move on now! Yay! Nobody like sonic to tell this dramatic part, so expect some more from him in the next chapter. They won't be single-view chapters anymore, but don't worry, I'll make sure character P.O.V. changes are obvious.**

**Again, credit to all those whom deserve it for this story**

**And by the way, I'm fixing chapter one, so that will be replaced soon. Next chapter will probably be done by next week, so look out for it.**

**Don't forget to comment, rate, follow, and etcetera.**


	4. Chapter 4- Double Vision

**Hey, sorry, I know it's been a while, but I've been trying to make this chapter really, really good, and I wasn't really sure where I should stop…**

**I would really appreciate any comments you'd like to leave, even if you think I have terrible grammar, spelling, whatever, I want to hear it, ok? But don't be mean, because that's just… mean. **

**_ANYWAYS_****… Here it is! Chapter four. Enjoy!**

**(Oh, by the way, I've decided to label it when I switch character views because I know it can get confusing, and I plan to switch views a lot from now on, so I hope it helps!)**

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog P.O.V.**

I was floating in the air as I watched it happen. A Metarex just out of my reach took aim and fired. The laser blast flew past me on my left side. But it was not intended for me.

The blast of energy hit Amy Rose directly in the chest. It all happened too fast for even me to react. She was thrown backwards against the dome of the control center of our ship. She hit her head hard on the glass, and slumped to the ground, lifeless. I knew she was probably just unconscious, but I saw a trickle of blood run down her neck to her shoulder.

I heard myself scream in agony and rage. The world around me turned red at the edges and I closed my eyes. I got this splitting headache, like there were two people in my head arguing with each other, but they agreed on one thing that kept them from tearing me apart. I think I realized at some point that I had lost all control over my actions, but at that point, I didn't really care.

All I could think was: _They hurt Amy. They. Must. Die._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Miles 'Tails' Prower P.O.V.**

I watched in wonder as my hero was surrounded by the glowing colorful stones. Things were going to turn out all right, I was relieved. Then it happened. It had only happened one time before; when Chris and Cosmo had gotten caught by the Metarex and were abused. I thought it would never happen again, now that sonic knew about it, he would be aware and make an effort to avoid going Dark Super Sonic. But I suppose seeing Amy on the floor like that, and believing it was his fault must have been too much for him to handle.

It was different this time though, he hadn't had the Chaos Emeralds before, and since he didn't need any emeralds to go Dark Super Sonic… something weird was happening.

**AN: (I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, so I drew my own picture of what it looks like, see this story's picture that I've just changed. It's original, I drew it myself, from my imagination, but it's based off of the Dark Super Sonic and Super Sonic forms.)**

He had already started to turn gold when he realized what had happened to Amy. And the shock and anger he must have felt at seeing one of his friends hurt on his watch made him so angry, that he immediately and swiftly began to turn the darkest shade of blue in existence. But my guess is, because of his pure and good intentions when he caught the Chaos Emeralds, the Emeralds weren't gonna just give up on making him Super. But he was so angry, that the darkness was very strong as well. He screamed in a cry that seemed like he was more outraged than hurt, and the two colors seemed to fight one another for his fur for a little bit, and then they suddenly just calmed down, and settled on splitting him right down the middle. The line between the two shades of his fur was not defined; it kept swirling and changing down his middle.

He opened his now ruby red eyes. He looked down at Amy, who was still out cold and bleeding a little from her ear; and then at his other friends around him who were frozen in varying degrees of wonderment and terror. I probably wasn't in any better of a state. He said nothing. He turned his attention to the still approaching army of Metarex robots.

He let out a sudden roar and attacked the army viciously. They didn't stand a chance. All around him Metarex fell in piles of scrap metal. We were all still a little bit shocked, but after a minute, Knuckles broke the silence among us and said, "Remind me not to make that guy angry, come on! We'll win faster if we help!"

I grinned in agreement, and continued to work on making the shields stay up and keeping the weapons firing. I still couldn't help thinking that something didn't feel right though. I shook my head and continued my work on the computer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Knuckles the Echidna P.O.V.**

Leave it to Sonic to pull something like this at the last moment and turn the tide. Sometimes I get jealous of the guy for always getting to save the day, and then I remind myself of how awesome I am. I am the guardian of the great and powerful Master Emerald. I come from a long line of strong and just echidnas; and protecting the Emerald has been my duty for as long as I can remember. It was my father's job, and his father's job, and his father before him, and so on. I am also the last echidna. After me, there are no more. But now is not the time to be thinking about this. Right now, Sonic is kicking robot butt while I'm thinking of my parentage, I better get to it.

In a matter of minutes, Sonic and I had demolished all of the 'bots attacking the ship. He flew off into the brawl to destroy the armada itself. I was about to follow him when I heard Cosmo calling my name. _Crud, that's right, I need to go activate the Master Emerald, almost forgot. _I looked over my shoulder at the glowing gold/black blur decimating the enemy ships. _He should be fine without me for awhile,_ I thought, chuckling to myself.

I ran into the control room shouting my apologies to Tails for forgetting and I didn't wait for a response before sprinting into the cargo bay where my Master Emerald was.

As I ran up, I stopped dead, staring at it.

It was glowing brightly, and the green color of the emerald kept twisting and shooting off sparks like it was angry. I had never seen anything like it.

As I walked closer, it seemed to calm down a fractional amount. I could see images flashing in the reflection of the emerald for fractions of a second at a time. I couldn't comprehend what any one image actually showed, but I got the feeling that they all had something to do with destruction and fear.

I caught a flash that was more defined and longer than most. It was of Sonic. He had a twisted look of fear and pain on his features before it flashed again to show myself and the rest of Sonic's friends watching something with apprehension and worry etched on all of our faces. I shivered.

I saw swirling dark green patterns in the surface of the emerald where terrifying images weren't showing.

I arrived right in front of the emerald before I was aware that I had been slowly making my way up to it.

I didn't really know what I should do, so I raised my arms and started the chant that I was so familiar with.

"The servers are the seven Chaos." He started with as much confidence as he could muster. The emerald flared up and the images and swirls moved faster, making Knuckles feel a bit dizzy.

"Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart." He continued on, closing his eyes to avoid feeling sick from the swirling colors and flashing images. The Emerald glowed as bright as the sun and flashed so many colors that it all just looked white. If Knuckles had been looking, he would have gone blind from the brightness.

"The Controller serves to unify the Chaos!" Knuckles shouted over the now audibly humming with power Emerald.

As soon as Knuckles finished pronouncing the last 's' in 'Chaos', and his arms fell to his sides, the emerald went dark. One second it was as bright as a new sun, and within the time span of just a second, it… died. It stopped humming and glowing and turned a rich, dark green. Like a child that was having a tantrum just suddenly went to sleep. Knuckles waited for a second, and then cautiously opened his eyes.

"WHAT?!" he roared, "How? What the..." he started pacing, but just then he heard a gut-wrenching scream coming from outside the ship. He had a horrible feeling and began to run back to Tails.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Miles 'Tails' Prower P.O.V.**

Knuckles is going to power up the Master Emerald, thank goodness, there is only so much I can do with the regular power of our ship. I set the power board up to get ready to accept the Chaos energy from the Master emerald and waited for Knuckles to start awakening it. I had a minute so I kept an eye on Sonic.

He really was remarkable. He decimated whole fleets of ships with every blast from his palm. The Metarex did not stand a chance. I almost started to feel bad for them as they began to try and flee. I was surprised at Sonic for continuing to attack a fleeing enemy, usually he was more merciful than that, but they _were_ only robots. At least, he hadn't attacked Eggman or Yellow Zelkova _yet_. I watched as a brave ship attempted to sneak up and blast him from behind. I was about to yell to him to look out, but he had it covered. He flicked his right hand back with barely a glance and a dark bolt of pure energy blasted the ship apart.

My attention was drawn back to the control board as the energy readings spiked. Knuckles must have made it to the cargo bay where the Emerald was. The energy readings were off the charts. My power board started fizzling from the huge amount of power coming from the Emerald. I had to cut it off and turn the shields and guns on to full power to keep the power reservoirs from exploding.

"What the heck?" I wondered to myself. _Sure, the Master Emerald gives off a lot of power, but it's never given off so much that my power reservoirs almost exploded…_

I checked the cameras in the cargo bay. I saw the Emerald acting really strange and Knuckles with his arms held high in the air reciting his chant. Knuckles closed his eyes as he said the second part of his prayer. Then an intense bright light filled the screen and all the cameras to that room simultaneously fizzled out and died. I heard a humming begin from the direction of the Cargo Bay and then I heard Knuckles shout something at the top of his voice, probably the last part of the chant. Then the humming abruptly ended and a bright light suddenly flared up outside the ship.

I whipped my head around as the green aura around Sonic became an intense white that enveloped him and created a white-hot blast that flared out for a range of about half a mile in a sphere around him. It was so bright and intense that I had to look away again for fear that I would go blind from looking at it. It just barely touched our shields and a warning immediately went up informing me that that area of the shield suddenly went down and that we had no defense in that part of the ship. Anything that touched the supernova around Sonic immediately disintegrated. The whole time the new Sun that was Sonic lasted, we could hear his blood-curdling scream of pain.

Half a minute in, Knuckles ran up from the Cargo bay and gasped at the bright light that was Sonic. He began shouting something to me, but all I could make out was "Chaos energy" "Master Emerald" and "My fault" over the cacophony of Sonic's scream, various alarms, and pistons shunting off steam in a valiant effort to keep the ship from burning up from the heat.

Sonic sounded like he really was in a great deal of pain. I wish there was something I could have done to help him, but trying to get anywhere near him would have been suicide. We were right next to a star the size of our ship. And Sonic was right at the center of it.

I was beginning to think it would never end and that I would have to hear my hero's cry of pure agony forever when the light shrunk back in and then burst out in a warm, tingly blast that made me feel like everything would be okay. I knew this feeling to be the work of the Chaos emeralds, and that its power warmed even the coldest of hearts.

The light emanating from the outside of the ship faded to a warm glow and it felt safe to look again. I slowly turned my head along with Knuckles, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese, and Chris. Six faces looked on with awe and fear at the two creatures hovering just a half mile away from our ship.

One of the creatures seemed to be made purely of light and glowed with the friendly warmth of a campfire or the rising sun on a cold day.

The other seemed to be the complete opposite. One would miss it in the vast emptiness of space if the other was not next to it. It seemed to bend and draw the light around it in and created a pitch-black void where it floated.

Both of them were hedgehogs. And both of them wore Sonic's shoes and gloves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Amy Rose P.O.V.**

"Uuuuhhgggg… My head…" I groaned as I slowly sat up. "What happened?" that's a good question. One moment we were fighting the army of Metarex, then Cosmo comes out with the emeralds, and I let my guard down for ONE second to see my beloved _Sonic_ go super and then _WHAM!_ And the next thing I know, there's this warm feeling and I wake up with a major headache and my chest hurts like never before.

I didn't get an answer; everyone was busy staring at two things floating around about half a mile from the ship. I looked around for Sonic. "What are those things? Where's Sonic?" I asked, again, no answer.

I took a closer look at the things that I know recognized as hedgehogs hovering a half mile away from the blue typhoon. Everything was dead silent. One of them was really bright and made me think of a smile and a warm, sunny day; and the other was pure black and made me think of death and disaster.

One made me feel safe and warm and the other made me want to go curl up in a corner and hide.

They were as different as day and night, yet as similar as twin stars in the sky. I gaped at them both and made out the familiar form of none other than Sonic the hedgehog.

"_Sonic?_ I-Is that y-you?" I asked in a tiny voice.

No one should have been able to hear me from that distance, but as soon as I asked, both of the hedgehogs turned to the sound of my voice. They stated to fly in my direction. I could see their eyes now.

The dark one had eyes the color of newly fallen snow. They were a pure white that glowed brightly in the midst of all the blackness that made up the rest of him. They had no pupils. They shone in the darkness like searchlights. They both enchanted me with their beauty and terrified me with their cold, alien, calculating look. Other than his eyes, gloves, and shoes, this hedgehog had no other features to speak of, and all the light and area around him seemed to be warped and pulled in towards him.

The light one had eyes the color of the core of a flame, the ruby red that one imagines at the center of a log fire. They too, had no pupils. But rather than make him look frightening and alien, the warm red eyes seemed to draw me in and make me feel… safe, like an inviting fireplace on Christmas day. There are no other words to describe it. His whole body seemed insubstantial, and I could actually see the spaceships in the armada behind him, or what was left of the armada that wasn't fleeing. He was completely composed of light, and emanated a warm glow that never wavered or dimmed. I had a feeling that he was pure energy.

How did this happen to Sonic? _My_ Sonic? How was he now two beings that looked like polar opposites?

My fear and shock must have been given away by my expression; because both of them simultaneously looked ashamed of themselves and said in perfect harmony, in an almost imploring tone "Amy…" their eyes searched my face for any sign of revulsion or alarm. I looked head on at the two of them, letting them know that they did not scare me. They must have been satisfied, because they turned away from me and seemed to notice each other for the first time.

There was a moment of tension as they sized each other up.

"Another faker." The dark one droned. "Let's see if you're any good." He said with a tone that made me think that if he had a mouth, he would have been smirking.

"Who are you calling a faker?! I _am_ THE, one and only, Sonic the hedgehog!" The light one threw back with one of Sonic's many signature poses.

"Yeah right, and I'm Eggman, FAKER!" He shouted back becoming excessively aggravated over the debate.

"Hey, don't start a fight, you're obviously confused." The light one backed up, becoming worried from the black aura appearing around the dark one.

"No, I believe it is _you_ who is confused, Sonic-wannabe!" The now emanating darkness hedgehog closed in on his light counterpart, becoming angrier and angrier with every passing second.

The light one continued to back up, "Look, I don't want to fight you, but there is no way _you_ can be Sonic, because _I _am Sonic." He attempted to reason with the terrifying black hedgehog, to no avail.

_"I don't want to fight you,_" the dark one mocked, "you're pathetic; you aren't even _trying_ to act like me." He taunted, "If you really think you are the _real_ Sonic, then fight me, and whoever wins can claim that title." He challenged.

"Fine." The glowing one accepted after deliberating for a while, "but only because you would fight me anyways."

"Got that right, wimp." The dark one responded, and then sped in the direction of the light one so fast that no one had time to react.

But the glowing one was prepared for that and dodged the attack by teleporting to where the other hedgehog had just been standing.

"What, to afraid to take a hit?" the dark one smirked, and charged again.

The other one just cheekily made a yawning motion as he dodged yet again.

I watched on as the two of them continued in this dance of attack, dodge, and repeat. Neither one made any headway, because the dark one was to angry to think of anything but attacking head on, and the light one had no intention of hurting the other until he actually had to defend himself.

I could tell that unless someone intervened, this would-be battle would go on forever.

So I decided to be that someone.

"SONIC!" I yelled as loudly as I could to get their attention.

Both of them immediately stopped and diverted their attention to me.

"Yes?" they both asked, then glared at each other and said "she didn't mean you." They said these words at the same time, and yet again, their voices were in perfect harmony, like a choir of angels singing together.

I hadn't actually thought ahead that far. "Ummm, could you guys please stop fighting? How do you know you're not _both _Sonic?" it sounded kind of lame, but I was just trying to distract them.

"There's only one Sonic the hedgehog, and that's me!" the dark one shouted and attacked the light one, catching him off guard.

The punch hit the light one square in the chin, and even though they had been floating just next to each other, and the punch couldn't have been very hard, it created a huge explosion that blasted both of them far away from each other.

They both now glowed with auras of pure power, and had been blasted down the length of the ship from each other. My quills blew back from the force of the blast and I had to put all my effort into leaning forward to keep from falling over.

"Whoa…" the three of us all said at the same time.

Tails ran out waving his arms at the two Sonics. "You two can't touch each other! Don't you see? You're _both _Sonic, and somehow, you split into two separate consciousnesses of yourself!" he yelled, beginning to fly with his twin tails towards the two beings. "You are Sonic dark and light, yin and yang, shadow and sun! You two are like opposite ends of a magnet! Two halves of the same whole! Good thing you didn't hit each other too hard, or else you could have ended us all with the recoil blast! We're just lucky Amy wasn't fried!" he finished, arriving next to the twin hedgehogs.

Just then, the Metarex recovered from their shock and began firing again. All of us were caught off guard, we had almost forgotten that the Metarex were still there. They threw everything they had at us. Tails was blown back from the force of a missile hitting our shields and exploding just behind the double Sonics.

The power-emanating hedgehogs had been watching at each other with a newfound respect and amazement until the explosion behind them blew their quills back. They both turned; interested to see who had dared attack them. Their burning auras flared up with anger at the sight of the Metarex command ship with its weapons ablaze shooting at the Blue Typhoon.

"Gotta run!" they both said in that harmonic double-tone again. And off they went.

_***IMPORTANT! READ THIS!***_

**Ok, I have to say that I actually wrote a lot more than this, but then I saw how many words I wrote and I cut it off… so good news: chapter five is already almost done! Bad news: cliff hanger *insert devil face* well, it shouldn't last you guys too long, if you do as I say! That's right, game time! I keep asking you guys for comments, but (except for one person who gave me advice that makes me now use word and I have one of my friends be editor) so far only one person that happened to be one of my friends that I made read my story has ACTUALLY commented… *insert very angry face***

**So… if you want the next chapter, I want… Hm, I think I'll go easy on you guys… at least five legit comments on this chapter by DIFFERENT people, I don't want people saying, "here's a comment", and I don't want five all from the same person, but I will count the same person commenting on different chapters. I promise, as soon as I get five comments the next chapter will come out that day or within three days, unless I say otherwise (like I'm on vacation with no internet or something) but I would probably be writing on vacation still anyways, I just wouldn't be able to upload.**

**If you guys don't know what to comment on, just tell me whether I'm doing good or not or if I'm making grammar and spelling errors that are bugging you. Also you could make suggestions on what should happen next, or you could complain about how long it's taking for the next chapter to come. If I don't get five comments, I will just put the next chapter out every two weeks, if I'm feeling nice. I'm new, but I kind of have an idea for the whole plot of this story, so it shouldn't be too hard to write the chapters.**

**Also, guys, because I'm new, I really need your feedback on my writing. Remember, favorites, follows, and all that stuff, it's all free. It doesn't cost you anything to add a favorite, but if you want a good story, I want motivation. I want to know if you guys either like it or hate it, ok?**

**Ok, LONGEST author's note I've ever written aside, Merry Christmas guys! Have a nice holiday season! I will upload chapter five on Christmas even if I don't get five comments by then, as my gift to you.**


	5. Chapter 5- The Unlikely Team

**So we pick up right where we left off.**

**I still want comments, but as I promised, here is Chapter five on Christmas day. My gift to you, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5- The Unlikely Team**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**Amy Rose P.O.V.**

With two Sonics beating up the Metarex, soon it was only the command ship, Eggman's ship, and debris left.

The dark one started to form an energy beam to blast the command ship out of commission, but the light one teleported in front of him to prevent him from having a clear shot.

"Get out of my way! What's your problem?" the shadowy powerhouse shrieked, ending his attempted energy blast before he could shoot it off.

"No! There is a living being on that ship, you can't just destroy it and kill him! Even if he _is_ a Metarex!" the shining one reasoned with him.

"Do you think I care? He came here and attacked me! He's just getting what he deserves!" dark sonic fumed.

"No, it doesn't matter; we can't just take his life because he made the mistake of attacking the wrong person." Light Sonic argued back.

"And who's gonna stop me? You? You can't even touch me!" the dark one scoffed.

"I can and will stop you!" the brightly glowing hedgehog bravely powered up. "If you want to take his life, then you'll have to go through me first!" he shouted with overflowing confidence.

"Fine! Then I will!" the other yelled with equal confidence.

And they sped straight at each other.

"Oh no…" I heard Tails whimper behind me.

When they made contact, even though they were very far away from the ship we could still feel the blast. An explosion erupted between the two, but it didn't faze them even a little bit.

They continued at it, smashing into each other faster and harder each time. The command ship had been smart enough to make a break for it and attempt to slip away while the two had been arguing, but it was much closer than we were, and just being within a mile of their battle was enough to make the ship dented and bashed up looking. _Good,_ I thought_, they should get some dents for messing with us. Poor Sonic, who knows what he's dealing with right now?_

The only ship left that wasn't retreating was Eggman's, and I saw it heading towards us, with… was that Shadow and Rouge standing on the top deck waving… white flags? I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

The screens on our ship fizzled to life to show a very worried looking Eggman.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow the Hedgehog P.O.V.**

"You want us to do what?!"

That was Rouge, being immature and loud as usual.

"I said; I want you two to go stand on the hull and hold white flags while I get close to their ship." The doctor repeated through his teeth, looking very unhappy about giving this order.

"I heard what you said Eggman, but… Why?" Came Rouge's usual snappy response.

"Because… this… crisis… with Sonic… has… gone… too far…out of hand… it needs to be ended…" he grudgingly and slowly explained.

I could tell the doctor hated the idea of surrendering to try and work with the other Mobians to stop this apocalyptic fight, but he has to admit, it really is the only way that we would get anywhere close enough to stop him. It was my idea; Sonic's identity crisis is getting too far out of hand, and it is endangering lives. We need to bring an end to it. And the only way to even begin to do that is to work with his friends. I managed to convince Eggman to agree to surrender by pointing out that Sonic would probably come for us next if he hadn't already destroyed everything with those explosions he was creating. That got the doctor to get over his pride.

"Shadow! Don't you have anything to say about this?" Rouge complained.

In response, I picked up the flags and threw one to her as I walked up to the deck.

I allowed myself a small smirk at her dumbfounded expression. Eggman mumbled something unintelligible and turned his chair around to get to work on launching communications. Rouge just stood there for a minute and then snapped out of her daze and flew to catch up with me on the top deck.

"What the hell, Shadow? Since when are you fine with giving up?" She accused me.

I ignored her, its better not to argue with idiots.

"Hello? Earth to Shadow! You are about to just give up! To Sonic's friends!" she flew in front of me so I had to look at her.

I sighed, "Yes, Rouge, I know full well what I am doing; I was the one who suggested we surrender." At this statement, Rouge gaped at me. I took some pleasure in her surprised expression and continued. "And if you would shut up and open your eyes, you would see why. We are outnumbered and now, possibly outmatched. And Sonic is out there causing massive explosions that, since you obviously haven't noticed, just keep getting bigger. The only chance we stand is by working with his friends to stop him. There's more than just your pride at stake here, Rouge. There are millions of lives down on Mobius that would be extinguished if those explosions reach the planet. Not to mention ourselves and Sonic's friends…" I watched as realization washed over Rouge's features and she thought over exactly how much trouble we were in.

"Oh… right, I didn't think…" she flustered

"Exactly, you didn't think. You never do. Now either get a move on, or get out of my way, I have some flag waving to do." I said as deadpan as I could, knowing exactly how ridiculous I sounded.

She hid a grin at my attempt to be humorous and moved to the side so I could walk past. I walked up to the top deck, and lifted my flag. Rouge arrived beside me, and we just stood there for a bit, waiting for the space ship to get close to The Blue Typhoon so that they Mobians could see us.

"So… what are we supposed to do? Just… wave them?"

This was really awkward, "Yes." I said like I knew what I was doing.

She couldn't tell. "Had experience with this sort of thing, have you?" She teased me.

I just closed my eyes and counted to ten in my head; it helps me to focus and not punch people in the face. I heard her snicker to my right; she figured I was keeping myself from attacking her, and for the record, she was not making it any easier, but I kept my cool. When I opened my eyes again, we had made some progress towards the ship, and I could see the fox and the pink hedgehog on the deck watching Sonic. We started waving the huge flags as broadly and visibly as possible.

The pink one looked our way and perked up and got the kitsune's attention. They both turned our way and the Seedrian, Cosmo, ran out to see, then ran back inside. The fox ran inside as all the screens presumably filled with Eggman's face. The female hedgehog stayed out on the deck to keep an eye on our approaching ship. Rouge and I continued to wave our flags as we drew closer. I could tell Rouge was getting tired; the flags _were_ a bit heavy. I wasn't tired. I'm the ultimate life form. I don't _get_ tired.

The explosions continued in the distance, and I offered to take Rouge's flag for her if she would go and explain why we were here to the pink one. She fervently agreed and nearly threw the flag at me as she launched herself down towards the ship.

I caught it deftly in my right hand and continued to wave them until we were close enough that I could see the pink one's large, worried eyes as Rouge talked to her. I dropped the flags and jumped to the other ship. Both girls turned to me as I landed.

I nodded to the pink one and walked towards the control room. She didn't stop me.

I walked into the room to see Eggman and the dual-tailed fox debating over how to bring Sonic back under control.

"We have to be careful about how we handle this." Tails mused, "I'm not too happy about working with you Eggman, but I see your point. We need to work together in order to get sonic under control."

"Glad you see it my way, or rather Shadow's way. Ha! Speak of the devil, hello Shadow!" he said, seeming relieved to see me. The kitsune whipped around to see me as well.

"Oh, hi… Shadow…" he nervously greeted me.

_Poor kid, _I thought, _his best friend is having an identity crisis, and he's just had to deal with taking leadership and negotiate with his nemesis. Who knows how stressed he is?_

I almost reached for his shoulder and asked him if he was alright, but instead I just nodded to him and asked: "So, do you two have any idea how to pull Sonic back together?"

"Well, first we need to know what happened. I took some readings during the supernova when he split, but I imagine Tails knows more about what could have caused his split personality in the first place. I recognized one of his halves as dark sonic, and the other is his super form, am I correct in assuming this?" he turned his attention back to the young fox.

Yes, that's how I think he split too." Tails confirmed. "But these two Sonics, they resemble dark and super Sonic, but I believe they are more than that. Before he split, I had asked Knuckles to power up the master emerald so that I could increase power to the shield and guns. I noticed while I was waiting that Sonic was only shooting the ships with his dark super side's hand. I think that more than just Sonic's body and powers split. I think his personality and mind split as well." The kitsune paused for breath and Eggman interrupted.

"So one half of him is his pain and aggression, his dark side and evil personality; but the other half of him is all the _goody-goody_ things about him, like his conscience and his loyalty?"

"That's my guess, yeah." The fox agreed.

"Ok, so continue with your story." Eggman encouraged, sitting forward in his chair.

"Well," the fox nervously restarted looking back to me like he was afraid; I gave him a nod of encouragement. at least, thats what I was going for. "Um, as I said, I sent Knuckles to power up the master emerald and when he got there something weird was happening." He rushed through, gaining confidence as he continued to speak. "I didn't see much of it, but the emerald was sparking and flashing with images, almost like it was… angry I guess. Actually, Knuckles is around here somewhere, he can describe it to you." He finished, seeming excited to get his friend and running out of the room.

That left just me alone with the doctor on the screen.

"What do you make of this, Shadow?" the doctor asked.

I thought about it for a second then said, "I don't know what to think, all I care about right now is fixing this mess and avoiding one more cataclysmic event."

Eggman didn't say anything. Just then Amy and Rouge came in and joined us.

Rouge came to stand next to me, and Amy stood next to her, still talking about something that had too much to do with shopping and fashion for me to understand. Or care. Rouge whispered something to Amy and then giggled. Amy giggled as well. Rouge put her back next to mine and crossed her arms and made a moping face. It took me a moment to realize she was mocking me.

"Rouge…" I growled.

"What Shadow?" She asked innocently, pretending to be oblivious. Amy had her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.

I glared at her and said as menacingly as I could, "You know _exactly_ what, cut it out."

She uncrossed her arms. "You're no fun Shadow," she pouted.

I just ignored her and turned away, attempting to avoid an argument with Rouge.

"_Come on_ Shad, don't be that way." She coaxed, teasing me at the same time.

"Don't call me that, you know I hate it." I hissed back.

She just gave me one of those infuriating grins, like she's saying 'I have something planned later, and you won't like it' in a singsong way. Needless to say, it always manages to work me up, but for the sake of Amy and Eggman, I didn't start a fight. I just closed my eyes and counted to ten. I do that a lot when Rouge is around.

When I opened my eyes again, Rouge and Amy were in a corner talking quietly. I noticed that they looked in my direction a lot, so I mentally prepared myself for one of Rouge's tricks later. Eggman had left the screen, probably to go get something to eat, he hasn't had a snack for, about… wow, I think it's been an entire hour since he last ate. That just might be a new record.

I went back to ignoring the rest of them and watching the two hedgehogs (or was it one?) that were causing mayhem just a few miles away. _That idiot, he's gonna destroy Mobius with those blasts! _I thought. Then I felt kind of bad for calling him an idiot, the guy wasn't in his right… minds, and so far everything that I've heard hasn't indicated that it's his fault in any way. But the guy, even when he isn't causing massive explosions, infuriates me to no end. I can't stand him. At all.

Tails came back into the room dragging a dejected Knuckles the echidna into the room. When he saw Rouge, Eggman, and me, his despair quickly transformed into rage.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he practically shouted at the three of us, his words dripping with loathing.

"Knuckles! Calm down!" the pink hedgehog in the corner scolded him.

"Yeah, knucklehead, we come in peace." Rouge said.

Which of course, just worked him up even more.

He turned on Tails. "Why are _they_ here?" He demanded.

I felt bad for the kid. "W-well, ummm, they surrendered, and ummm, I thought... Well, Sonic is out of control... So I said we could team up together and-"

Knuckles cut him off "You said what?! And you didn't ask me?! There is no way I would EVER work with... With her! Or Eggman! EVER!"

Rouge looked hurt, "Awwww, Knucky, that hurts, I'm not _that_ bad to work with, right Shadow?" She asked, turning to me expectantly.

Ugh, Rouge. She knows that I hate having her annoying me, and that working with her almost _is_ that bad. But on the other hand, I need Knuckles to agree to work with us because he knows what happened with the master emerald.

"Um, sure." I said, rather unconvincingly.

"See Knucky? Shadow works with me all the time, and he doesn't think I'm so bad. For the record, Shadow is a great partner too." She said. Knuckles looked unimpressed.

I decided to intervene, Rouge wasn't getting anywhere with the echidna.

"It doesn't matter whether you want to work with us or not, do you think we're all thrilled to deal with your attitude? We're here because neither of us can get Sonic under control alone. By working together, we have a better chance of stopping him from blowing-up the planet that his explosions are getting closer to every second." I stated.

The echidna's righteous anger dissipated, "I know... It's just, I feel like this is all my fault." He confessed, his shoulders drooping. "The... The master emerald, it was sparking, and there were these horrible images" he shuddered. "I know now that the emerald was trying to warn me, but I didn't understand. I saw... In the reflections on it, there was... An image of... Sonic, in immense pain, and all of us, watching him and not being able to do anything. I didn't know what I was supposed to do, I had never seen anything like it, so I just started my chant, because that's what Tails had asked me to do. For the shields and weapons. As I said the chant, it glowed brighter and the images sped up, and then I closed my eyes to finish the chant because the images were making me feel sick." He shivered again remembering the images and swirls on the emerald. "And then as I said the last part, it hummed and when I finished, it was silent. And when I opened my eyes again, it..." A tear fell down his face "... It was dead. Completely dark. It had no power at all. One second it was full of life and humming with power, and the next... It's like it just let go of all its power. And then I heard Sonic's scream..." He finished, looking down.

We were all silent for a minute; no one dared say a word. We had all been listening intently to his story. The explosions outside continued.

Rouge said rather half-heartedly "looks like you messed up pretty big, Knucklehead." Knuckles glared at her but didn't say anything.

Then Eggman piped up, he had come back just after Knuckles had arrived. There was a plate covered in crumbs on his side table. "Well, there's no use in just sitting here, is there? Now that we know what happened to the hedgehog, let's work on how to fix him, remember, time is of the essence, and by the looks of it,"

He glanced off-screen, presumably in the direction of Sonic, but from our view, he was looking in the opposite direction. All of Sonic's friends who didn't know better looked that way, then seemed to realize their mistake and looked in Sonic's direction.

"That is something we are in short supply of" the doctor continued, referring to Sonic's ever-growing blasts of light and energy.

Tails looked confused "What do you mean we know what happened to Sonic? All Knuckles told us is how the master emerald lost power." He asked.

"Ahhhh! But you must have missed something _very_ important!" The doctor raised one finger and gloated in a tone that all of us recognized, and most of us hated. I didn't hate it, it usually meant that the doctor either had or was close to a solution.

"Spit it out, Eggman. We're all waiting!" Rouge rudely prompted the doctor to continue.

"Well, the master emerald, as you put it, 'died' just before Sonic started to split, am I correct?" Knuckles nodded and Eggman continued, "and your exact words were:'it just let go of all its power', I think it did more than just let go of the power it had."

Tails gasped as he caught on while the rest of us exasperatedly asked "What?" Waiting for the doctor to finish already.

"I think it sent all its power to Sonic. It had too much, and sent them to the one outlet it had. The chaos emeralds, which, it just so happens, were being used by one Sonic the hedgehog." He ended his theory triumphantly.

Tails continued the idea, "And because all that power came to him while he was split the way he was, his conflicting forms used that power to actually split him into two different hedgehogs! And since they were given such a huge amount of power, they powered up to forms beyond super, the dark and light Sonic out there are literally composed of pure darkness and pure light energy!" He added.

"Yes, Tails! And now, all we need to do to stop them and pull them back together is find a way to remove the chaos emeralds, and fast!" Eggman suddenly stopped and frowned. "But how?"

The ship rocked suddenly. An alarm went off saying the shields had been breached.

"I don't know, Eggman, but we better find out soon, or we're toast!" Rouge yelled as another powerful shock wave reached us.

"I have an idea!" Eggman yelled, "I'm sure that it will work! But the side effects might be... Unpleasant."

"It doesn't matter!" Tails shouted, madly trying to get the ship back under control. Everyone in the room was holding onto something to keep from falling over. "Just do it! Now! Before we're all blown apart!"

"I need to go back to Mobius to retrieve what I need! It shouldn't take too long!" Eggman shouted over the combined noise of Tails' and his own alarms.

"GO!" Tails yelled back "but hurry!"

Eggman wasted no time and left. Tails flew the ship further away from the battle and we watched as the blasts got larger and larger until Eggman came back. He was on a much larger battleship, it looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

Tails gasped. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? But, will it work?"

Eggman smiled wryly, "Of course it will. All we have to do lure them both into the trap and push the button. It's already calibrated and ready to fire from its previous success. But as I said, the side effects will most likely be... Undesirable."

* * *

**Okay, same deal as last time, five comments on this chapter before the next chapter! Merry christmas guys! happy new year!**

**remember that favorites and follows do not cost any of you a penny! (Favorites and follows would make an amazing hristmas present *hint, hint* comments, too.) I appreciate any sort of feedback, alright? later dudes (and dudettes)! **


	6. Chapter 6- Eggman's Mistake

**AN: I have to say, I am quite enjoying not having any pressure to put chapters out because I'm not getting comments very quickly:) but thats not the reason I haven't put one up recently, I've had personal project, and THIMUN (if you don't know what that is, then look it up, I'm not your mom.), and loads of other things that I've been doing. (Like reading other people's fanfics... O.o *don't judge me!*)**

**Anyways, I just wanted to say that I hope you like chapter six, and I do know that Shadow was not in Sonic Unleashed, but for the sake of the story line, pretend that he did witness it. I'm not even close to halfway through this story, and I'm not sure exactly how long this fanfic will be, but I do know that I don't want it to go over 30 chapters, that is much too long. If you guys have any preferences, let me know, also about pet peeves and such, alright?**

**Also, I hope you guys don't mind me side-commenting in this chapter, I see other authors doing it, and I kinda want to try it out as well. (What can I say, I have loads to say XD) If you haven't figured it out yet, anything in bold is an author's note. Okay, picking up where I left off... Here you go!**

Chapter 6- Eggman's Mistake

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow the Hedgehog**

Wait, one of Eggman's inventions succeeded?** (Hahaha, even Shadow has no faith in eggman's machines XD) **What does he mean by undesirable side-effects? What trap? Why does everyone else seem to know what this is? Why does that ship look so familiar?

I had so many questions, but all I asked was: "What kind of side effects?"

Everyone in the room turned to me.

"Don't you remember Shadow?" The pink hedgehog asked me, then realising her mistake when I just stared blankly at her, immediately looked ashamed and looked down saying, "sorry, I forgot."

"It's ok," I replied, "but could you... Refresh my memory?"

The girl looked relieved and began to say something, but Eggman cut her off. "This particular ship was at the head of one of my space armadas a while back. I cleverly led Sonic to believe that I was just attacking Mobius again, but I managed to trap him in his super form on this ship."

I had to admit, I was more than a little surprised. "Wait, you managed to stop him in his super form? Explain." I demanded.

Eggman grinned. "Why yes, I have a device on this ship that I managed to trap him in! It uses an energy field to direct his own energy back at him and trap him. I even managed to devise a way to extract the chaos emeralds from him as well! The only problem is that once I start the machine, it can't be stopped, and I don't have enough time to change what it does. It will keep going and release dark Gaia from the planet, as well as-"

I cut him off, "and it turns Sonic into a huge monster! I remember now!" **(He's not shouting, he is quietly and epically coming to a realisation.)** Then I grimaced. "We have to deal with that eyesore again?"

Rouge smirked, "Awwww, Shad, you do care"

I growled at her pet name for me.

Rouge rolled her eyes at me. "Jeeze, Shadow, lighten up!"

I turned my back on her and looked back to the doctor. "How do you plan to trap them? If you haven't noticed, anything those blasts touch is instantly destroyed."

"Well, I have the machine, one of you has to go distract him and lure him into my ship!" He said in his usual egotistical tone.

"Ok, so who's it going to be?" I asked.

Everybody looked at me.

"Wait, I didn't mean..." I stepped back.

"What are ya worried about, Shad? You are the Ultimate Life Form, right?" Rouge said.

_Seriously Rouge_? I thought while glaring at her, _NOW you decide to agree that I'm the Ultimate Life Form? _**(Totally with you there mister Ultimate life form XD)**

"Okay, fine, will anybody come with me? I could use a little help." I stated, looking at the chaos outside.

"Ummm, I have to go help Eggman get the machine ready!" Rouge excused herself.

"And I have to try to get the Master Emerald back up and running." Knuckles said as he ran out of the room.

"I would help, but I have to keep this ship from going down" Tails told me, turning back to the controls.

"Me too." Chris said. "And anyways, I'm human, there's not much I could do."

"Honestly, I would help you, but I'm still hurt, and I wouldn't be much use, I'll just wait by Eggman's machine and see what I can do to help there." Amy left.

"I'm sorry, mister Shadow, but I'm only nine, if I was older, I'd help you!" The little rabbit in the corner that I hadn't noticed until that moment told me.

The seedrian named Cosmo was nowhere to be found.

I sighed, "that's okay, I didn't really expect anyone to help. Wish me luck, I'll need it."

The little rabbit looked sympathetically at me. "Good luck mister Shadow!"

I ran out of the control room to get closer to the action. _How am I gonna do this_? I asked myself, _I can't just fly towards them, I'll get fried! Maybe I can chaos control to them between blasts and get a word in before they attack each other._

I pulled out my fake Chaos Emerald. I looked over at the pair of hedgehogs locked in battle. _I've gotta time this just right..._

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rouge the Bat**

I felt kind of bad leaving Shadow high and dry like that, but there was NO WAY that I was going to fight those hedgehogs. That is a job better left for Shadow, and anyways, this is what he gets for bragging about being 'The Ultimate Life Form' all the time. That said, I decided that I would watch the battle and if he really needed help, I would jump in and come to his aid. I wasn't the only one. Amy and Eggman were also watching the battle. Amy had her hammer in hand, so I was guessing that she was thinking along the same lines as me.

Shadow ran out of the control room of the other ship. He stood there looking at the battle for a while; I didn't blame him, if it was me, I wouldn't be too eager to jump in either. He just glared at the hedgehogs for a while until he seemed to get an idea and pulled out that fake Chaos Emerald of his.

_Ingenious_, I thought, _he can just chaos control in and out between blasts, that way he won't get hurt! Looks like I won't have to help him out after all._

I sat back to watch as Shadow counted between the blasts so he knew how to time his teleporting. He unnecessarily watched the blasts a few more times, (I knew it was unnecessary because Shadow never needs to count _anything_ twice.) and I figured he needed a little motivation to get moving, so I went over to where Eggman was in his control chair.

"Hey, Doctor, you got an intercom? One that projects outside the ship?" I asked.

"Of course! What for?" He replied.

"None of your business, just hand it over." I demanded, doing my best imitation of Shadow's death glare so the doctor would hurry up. I checked over where Shadow was again, and sure enough, he was _still_ watching the blasts.

Eggman got the message and handed a microphone to me. "There, just press the button on the side and speak into it." He told me, then he went back to watching Shadow and the Sonics.

"Thanks doctor" I threw over my shoulder as I went over to a place where I could see Shadow better and he could see me. Namely, the huge window at the front of the ship. Amy was there too, watching Shadow and the blasts with large, worried eyes. Shadow was _still_ just standing and watching the Sonics with an expression of dread on his normally impassive features.

"Hey! Mister '_I'm the Ultimate Life Form_'!" I teased, and the ebony hedgehog looked in my direction. When he saw me and recognised my voice, his expression hardened into his usual death glare. "Get a move on! Those two aren't letting up! Those blasts aren't gonna get any smaller!" I finished.

Shadow bared his teeth, and I assumed he growled at me, though I couldn't hear it. He looked like he wanted to come over and throttle me, then he closed his eyes for a few seconds to calm himself down and looked back to the Sonics while tossing his fake Chaos Emerald up and shouting something as he caught it again. It must have been his typical 'Chaos Control!' because the next second he disappeared in a flash of bright red light. I never did understand exactly why he has to shout that every time he wants to teleport.

I looked over to where Sonic light and dark were battling and sure enough, a bright red flash flared up between the two just as they had been separated again. I couldn't see what was going on, but the twin hedgehogs paused for a second when they saw Shadow. He stiffened for a second under their combined gazes, then he lifted his arms to point at the two of them and shout something.

Apparently, they didn't like whatever he said, because rather than continuing to attack each other, they both immediately attempted to fire a blast from their palms at him. I saw another red flash just before the beams met and Shadow appeared a few meters from that point. He got lucky that they didn't explode. When the chaos energy beams hit each other, they seemed to cancel out **(as opposed to creating an explosion like with the Sonics)**, and just disappeared. He kept shouting at the two while chaos controlling away as soon as they headed towards him.

He was making good progress in our direction, and the two were completely distracted from their recent battle. They were chasing Shadow like he had just insulted their mother in the worst way possible. He was about halfway here when Eggman opened the bay doors and took his hover pod to the machine. I headed down too; mainly so I could hear what Shadow was yelling that could possibly make Sonic so angry. Amy followed behind me still looking worried out of her mind.

We made it down to where the huge machine was and we watched as Shadow headed rapidly towards us. He made leading two incredibly powerful, incredibly angry, and incredibly frightening hedgehogs look easy as walking a dog. He was becoming increasingly confident, and would stop to yell for longer periods of time before teleporting again. He was still pretty far away when I started to hear what he was saying.

"Can't catch me, fakers!" I heard.

"Eggman's grandma would be more of a challenge than you!" He yelled before teleporting.

"Too slow, again!" He shouted as he dodged yet again.

"You two are no match for the ultimate life form!" He jeered at them.

He wasn't even yelling 'Chaos Control!' to teleport anymore, he would just shout an insult and teleport, then yell another rude comment and flash away before they could attack.

It seemed that Sonic did not like to be teased about his speed, because the two glowing beings appeared to be growing more and more upset with every insult and missed attack. Even the golden one (who was supposedly the 'world peace' and 'can we talk this out' side of the blue hedgehog) had pure hatred and anger in his eyes. It was the dark one who really made me nervous though. He had murder in his eyes. His whole body radiated black power. He looked beyond infuriated, it was an anger which I had never seen the likes of before. We needed to power him down before he got ahold of Shadow. I was afraid of what he would do if he _did_ manage to catch the ebony hedgehog.

Then, just a quarter of a mile from the ship, Shadow got too confident. **(Ya, I know, Shadow? Confident? pssssssshhhhhh, noooooo... *#sarcasm*)** He stayed in one place just a second too long, and the dark Sonic caught him with a quick, well-aimed blast. Shadow was hit on the left side just below his heart. He clutched his side as he was flung the rest of the way into the ship. His fake chaos emerald flew out of his hand and off into a corner of the room. He was thrown hard, head-first against the floor just behind the trap. He landed with a sickening crack on the metal floor and I saw his eyes widen in shock as he crash-landed. He kept tumbling across the room until he hit the wall where he groaned and collapsed on his right side, unconscious. **(What!? The ultimate life form unconscious!? I have to check my notes... Oh well, Sonic must be ****_pretty_**** dang powerful.)**

I flew **(literally, flew, not just running fast. #wings)** across the room to him to give him a quick check to see if he was all right. His gloves were stained crimson where he had been holding his injury. The wound on his left side looked pretty bad, it gave the impression that he had caught on fire, and then someone had put liquid hydrogen on the fire to put it out, because it was ice-cold. But it wasn't very deep, and it wasn't bleeding too badly anymore, I was confident that he would heal. It was his head-wound that I was really worried about. He had fallen unconscious, but I knew that unlike with most injuries, falling asleep was one of the _worst_ things you could do with a head wound, so I was worried he might create permanent brain damage. He had definitely cracked his skull on the floor. His forehead looked a bit flattened. I knew that he had been designed to heal much more quickly than the average person or hedgehog, but between his side injury, his cracked skull, and the gash on his head where he had landed, his system was having a difficult time coping fast enough. Even when you heal at ten times the rate of any normal creature, a broken skull is very difficult to fix, and will definitely take a long time to repair itself. His head wound wouldn't stop bleeding. His system must be focusing on his skull first, as that is likely the worst injury he has, and therefore is the priority to be healed. I needed to wrap something over his head and torso to help stem the blood and seal his wounds to buy him time to heal.

I was wearing my one-piece black body suit as usual, and so I yanked off my boot and ripped off part of the black fabric from the leg of my suit. Amy had rushed over too and caught on to what I was doing and tore the hem of her dress off as well. I started wrapping the fabric from my suit around his head very carefully so as not to shift any fragments of his skull that might have been broken. Amy started to wrap the hem of her dress around his torso and soon he was as best patched up as we could manage. He still hadn't come to, and his breathing was shallow, ragged, and slow.

**(Okay, yeah. Really morbid... Blame my newly broken toe. I needed someone to share my pain)**

I was freaking out, it was all my fault that Shadow had gotten hurt **(yes, yes it is, Rouge)**, if I hadn't rushed him, if I'd not chickened out and I'd gone with him... What? Would he still be hurt? Would I be hurt too? Would we have managed to lure the Sonics into the trap already?

"Oh, Shadow, please be okay." I started to cry over his broken body, my face in my hands. I felt Amy put her hand on my shoulder and remembered that we still had a job to do. I wiped off my tears and got ready to finish the job Shadow started and get the Sonics into the trap.

Just then, the Sonics landed in the bay, they saw Shadow behind me, and they growled with a hatred that not even Shadow had ever accomplished in the time that I'd known him. **( O_o ****_Somebody's_**** not happy...)** The dark one raised his arm to deliver a blast that would likely finish the ebony hedgehog off.

There was no way that I'd let Shadow get hurt any more than he already was. His safety was now my number one responsibility. I crouched protectively in front of him and snarled menacingly at the dark hedgehog across the room; "don't you dare hurt him!" I demanded; then seeing my opportunity to get them into the trap, I growled at the two of them "If you want to get to Shadow, then you'll have to come over here and go through me first!"

The trap was still hidden under the floor directly between the Sonics and I. But Eggman had assured us that it was ready to capture Sonic at a second's notice.

Both Sonics sneered at me with that extremely annoying, over-confident grin on their faces.

"Have it your way, then." They both replied in perfect sync, and began striding across the room like they owned the place.

Right as they stepped on the trap, I yelled: "Now Eggman!" And (thank goodness he was paying attention) the doctor pressed the button and before I knew it, both Sonics were trapped in a kind of glowing energy field thing. Because they were both forced into the centre of the device, they smacked together, but the trap did its job. No blast came, because the force field bounced the energy back at them, and they absorbed it.

Eggman wasted no time in starting the machine to remove the emeralds and release light and dark Gaia from the planet. Already the machines were warning that they were going to overload from the level of power that they were attempting to contain.

There was a humming noise, and both Sonics shouted in pain as the Chaos emeralds were ripped from them. There was an intense light, and when we looked back at the machine, it held only one Sonic, and the chaos emeralds were floating around him. Something wasn't right about Sonic though, he wasn't completely his normal self. I didn't have time to ponder it though, because in that instant, the machine continued it's job and shot a purple blast down to Mobius.

The planet once again broke into pieces and a huge almost entirely transparent purple _thing_ rose up and then dissipated away across the planet just as quickly as it had come. It was dark Gaia, but it obviously had very little power from being awoken so soon after having been defeated.

Sonic yelled in pain again as he was transformed into a hulking beast with huge fangs, claws and muscles. Again, he still did not look quite right. even for a monster twice my size, he did not look like he should have. After he had transformed, the machine released him and the chaos emeralds (which were black and powerless). He collapsed on the floor. He was not down for long though, and he quickly got up and gave a furious howl. It was then that I noticed what was off about him. His fur was still a dark, almost black shade of blue. And his claws were longer, sharper, and the colour of pure obsidian. His fangs were razor sharp, and reached just below his muzzle, they were a pure white that glinted dangerously in the light from the bare lights on the ceiling. He was no longer super Sonic, but he had remained dark super Sonic when he rejoined. **(Remember how he doesn't need emeralds to go dark?)** He was now a very powerful, very angry, Werehog.

Sonic started to advance on us, looking incredibly pissed off. He was snarling with a feral menace like I had never seen before.

Apparently, Eggman freaked out, because some robotic arm swung out of nowhere and knocked Sonic out of the ship and sent him hurtling down towards the dark planet below. In all the excitement, we hadn't noticed that we were orbiting on the dark side of the planet **(That is important later)**. He howled the whole way down.

Everyone was frozen in place, wondering what the heck had just happened. It was Shadow who broke the silence. He groaned and turned over where he was. His eyes were flickering open and closed in a determined attempt to wake up.

I snapped out of my confused daze and kneeled down next to him as he tried to get up.

"Shadow, if you can hear me, stop moving. You're badly injured, and you'll just make it worse by trying to move around." I instructed him.

He stopped moving and blinked a few times and squinted in the light in an attempt to see me. After a minute or two, he had woken up enough to recognise me.

"...Rouge?" He asked groggily.

**AN: Mwahahahahaha! Suspense! *devil grin* (I'm so evil O_o) Lol, don't worry, the next part is mostly written, you won't be in suspense for very long ;) I'm curious, where do you guys think I live? Based on how I write and the expressions that I use, I mean. It's kind of a trick question, but I'm just curious what you all think. I'll tell you guys the answer in a chapter once I get a few responses, okay? If you get it right, you will have earned my eternal respect and the next chapter the moment that I receive the answer XD that's all I can give you, cuz I'm broke ;_;**

**(p.s.) I'm really not sure where to cut off my chapters, so I actually didn't decide to cut it off here just to be mean, okay? I've been keeping them at between 3,500 to 4,500 words, and it just so happens that this part was the best place to cut off in that general word range, okay? *don't hurt me!* if you guys think they should be longer, then go ahead and tell me, alright? (Same with if you want them to be shorter, but who likes short chapters?)**

**Anyways, cya next chapter! (Lol, next is lucky number seven!)  
-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96**


	7. Chapter 7- Are you okay?

**Okay, the suspense is over, here you go, this one is extra long, much longer than most (What can I say? I was in a writing mood XD)... Lucky Chapter number 7!**

**Chapter 7- Are you okay?**** (Super creative title, I know... *shame face*)**

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rouge the Bat **_continued..._

"...Rouge?" He asked groggily. He slurred my name in a way that gave me the impression of someone trying to speak with a mouthful of marbles. He immediately looked very displeased with how it sounded. I almost laughed at his expression. He was injured beyond the comprehensibility of the average person, and Shadow was worrying about his articulation. Typical.

"Yeah, Shadow, its me." I replied clearly and slowly, knowing how serious it is with a head wound to be patient and make sure his brain is working correctly, and not to create any surprises or sudden movements. It was especially important now that I know his speech has been affected, since his mouth wasn't bloody or swollen, the only explanation was that his brain was not synching his muscle movement the way it was meant to. Either the muscles weren't responding to his commands; or the worse option, his brain was having trouble sending the commands to the muscles in the first place.

My statement registered, and after a few seconds, in heavily slurred speech, he asked me; "...Did we catch him?" But it came out more like: "diwe gatchim?" Much to the hedgehog's embarrassment.

It was a good thing I had taught myself how to lip-read, or I might not have been able to figure out what he had asked.

I grinned, partly because he seemed so upset at his inability to articulate, and partly at his question's directness.

"Yea, we caught Sonic, and it was all thanks to you." I told him. Everyone in the room was silent, no one contradicted my statement.

He gave a small, tired smile, and then winced from his head injury. "'Ow baddo I loog?" He slurred, which translated into: "how bad do I look?" His tone of voice told me that he didn't really want to know how bad he was.

I looked him over. He kept his eyes on mine the whole time. His gloves were crimson with dried blood from the wound on his left side. The hem of Amy's dress was wrapped around his torso and it was soaked crimson on his left side. But most of it had dried, making me think that it had stopped bleeding altogether. The black fabric wrapped around his head was soaked through and wetly shined in the overhead lights. There were a few streaks of blood trickling down his face and muzzle. His red stripe was matted with crimson blood around the gash. His forehead still looked strangely flat where he had hit the floor, but it didn't look as bad as it had earlier, it was slowly, but surely settling back into place. His ruby red eyes looked like they were having a difficult time focusing on my turquoise blue ones. He was laying flat on his back on the floor, and he had moved his arms to lay loosely crossed on top of his stomach. His legs were out straight out on the floor, I hadn't noticed before when he had been lying on his side, but now it was evident that his right foot was pointing in the wrong direction. I prayed to Chaos that it wasn't broken, and hoped that it was only dislocated. He had various other small cuts that for the most part had been sealed up, though he did have another gash on his leg above the foot that was twisted. All in all, he looked pretty beat up, but not nearly as bad as he should look after having hurt himself merely fifteen minutes ago.

**(Again, so morbid! DX)**

I looked at his face again, I brushed a drop of blood off of his cheek and gave him the heavily toned-down version, "I'm not gonna lie, tough guy, you look pretty bad. But you could look worse." He let my statement register for a second, and looked at the ceiling.

Something seemed to dawn on him and he asked, "Wheressonic?" Which I lip-read as: "Where's Sonic?"

I looked to Eggman and Amy for help, they had understood him this time, but they both still looked a bit shellshocked and shrugged at my questioning glance. I still wasn't sure what happened myself, so I made something up.

"He passed out after all the excitement. Tails took him back to their ship." I lied. But Shadow couldn't tell, he was still groggy because of his forehead, and upset over his lack of ability to speak clearly.

He stopped and stared at the ceiling for a full minute and a half. He looked to be in deep concentration, and every few seconds his lips would faintly move to some unsaid word. I thought he was actually unable to say anything, and began to worry again, but then he finally cleared his throat.

He then proceeded to ask Eggman a question very slowly and with a little difficulty, the whole time looking at me. "Egg mann, doyou have-uh hospiddal wing on thisship? I think I may beein needof one." **(It's close enough, it needs no translation)**

The doctor seemed surprised to be addressed. "Uh... No, I don't believe so. I only ever had robots on this ship, there was no need of first aid."

Shadow thought for a second, then grimaced. "IssAmy sstill here? Or didsshe go withsSonic?" He asked me. That hedgehog didn't miss anything. He was obviously still having difficulty with his articulation, but it was improving very quickly.

Amy came over into his line of vision. "I'm still here, and yes, we have an on-board hospital on our ship, you're welcome to use it." She told him, correctly guessing what he was going to ask.

"Thankoo." He said, then before I could stop him, he sat up and leaned himself against the wall. He winced, but did not stop there. He managed to get himself standing completely upright on his good foot. He was a little wobbly from the lack of balance that only one foot gave.

"Shadow!" I exclaimed, and went to his side to help support him. Amy stood there with an expression of mingled worry and amazement. Shadow gratefully accepted my help and supported himself on my shoulder.

"Shadow! Don't pull stuff like that! You could have hurt yourself!" I scolded him, looking him up and down to make sure none of his wounds had been reopened.

He smirked at my paranoia. "I'll beefine, now holddon and I'll delebortus (teleport us) to the other ssship..." He drifted off while reaching into his quills for his emerald, but then he realised he was missing it. "Wheresssmy chaossemrold!?" (Where's my chaos emerald?) He wondered, his slur exaggerated by his frantic worry.

Eggman piped up. "I saw it fly off in this direction," he said, looking at the far corner. "Oh..." He trailed off, seeming put-down.

"Well, whaddisit (what is it)?" Shadow impatiently asked.

"Ah, well, it seems that your forehead is not the only thing you broke in your crash-landing," he stated, walking over to the corner to pick up what was left of the fake emerald. He showed us the handful of dull shards he had picked up.

"Dammit" Shadow muttered, "now how'm I ssuppossed to geddo their sship?" He asked.

"I may have a solution to that!" The doctor proclaimed. "This ship also used to carry some supplies, so I have hovering tables that would do the trick, if you don't mind lying down a bit more." He told Shadow.

Shadow nodded slowly, careful not to mess up his healing forehead. "Take usss to it." His S's were the only issue with his speech now, he had it almost completely under control.

"Oh no, Shadow, you are staying _right here_." I told him. "I will go get it and bring it here." Then I turned to Amy. "Do you mind keeping an eye on him while I go get the table?"

"Not at all," Amy replied, walking over.

"Thanks, hon." I said, letting her take Shadow's weight from me so I could leave.

Shadow was unintelligibly protesting against being left behind, and he was looking at me with an expression I hadn't ever seen on his face before. Usually he was either glaring, or death glaring at me, but now he looked more like a little boy with a scratch that was doing his best not to cry so that his friends and family would think he was tough. I guess that's exactly what Shadow was doing, he was forcing himself to slow down and talk right, sit up and even stand up to prove to the rest of us that just because he was hurt, that did not make him weak. He was obviously still in a lot of pain, I could see how much he was hiding it from the way he was biting the inside of his cheek and his lower lip, and how he would shift his weight and a grimace would flash across his face before being replaced again by the little boy expression. I wanted nothing more than to go back over to him and hug him, and tell him everything was going to be all right, and that he would be ok, and that he didn't need to be tough for me, because I already knew he was tough. I almost did turn back to him, but I realised that making him better was the best thing I could do for him right now.

Eggman directed me to a room a floor down, up the left corridor, and second on my right. When I got there, I found the room nearly empty other than for a few of the aforementioned hovering tables and several boxes. I took one of the tables, and it glided along behind me wherever I pulled it. It still worked pretty well, and I was sure it would do the trick for getting Shadow to the other ship. I dragged it back up to the room we were in and saw that Shadow was now sitting again (and not looking too happy about it), and Amy stood in front of him with her hands on her hips and tapping her foot. Shadow looked up when I came in the room and Amy turned around to see what he was looking at.

She looked relieved to see me. "As soon as you left, he tried to make a break for it, and when he tripped, he nearly fell on his face again!" She told me, turning back to glare at the ebony hedgehog. He had a stupid sort of mischievous half-smile on his face, and looked to be a little dazed. "Good thing he didn't get too far, and I managed to catch him, but I think he may have shifted his skull a bit."

I forgot all about the table for a minute, and ran back to Shadow's side. "You big idiot! Why would you pull something like that!" I yelled at him, more worried than angry and checked him over again. He didn't seem to be any more messed up than before, but the gash on his head was bleeding again, and so was the wound on his side. He seemed to be ok, except for the still-dazed expression on his face. "Shadow, are you okay?" I asked him.

There was a short pause that seemed to last an hour before he responded, this time with perfect articulation. "No, my skull is smashed, I have multiple cuts and gashes, my foot is pointing in the wrong direction, and overall, I feel like I've been run over by a fifteen ton truck." He stated, quite calmly; almost in his normal way of speaking. "I wouldn't say I'm exactly _okay_." He finished, still with half a smile lingering on his features.

I didn't know whether I wanted to slap the smile off of his face for being a smart mouth, or hug him for being able to be a smart mouth. When he saw my mixed expression, his half-smile widened into a grin. It was really annoying, and I could tell he was trying to make fun of me. I didn't let him have the pleasure of knowing he had really had me worried for a minute.

"Smart-ass." I said, standing up and going back to the hovering table. I pulled it over to him, and he had already stood up when I made it back to him. He was determined to get on the table by himself, but it was easier said than done. The table was hovering mid-chest height, just below his shoulders, and far above his waist. For a perfectly healthy mobian, it would have been difficult, and it was far too high for him to lift himself onto it with his diminished health, and he failed twice before giving up and leaning back against the wall with a disappointed expression.

I sighed. "Come on Amy, lets give him a hand."

She walked over and stood on his left side, and I was on his right. Eggman helped by pushing the table down so it would be easier for us to lift Shadow onto it. I had Shadow put his arms around Amy and I, while we each put one arm on his back, and used the other to support one of his legs. We had to be very careful as we laid him on the table that we didn't touch his side wound or his ankle. When he was finally on the table, we had another problem to solve.

"How are we gonna get this thing from this ship to yours?" I asked the pink hedgehog next to me. Yet again, Eggman had a solution.

"If I can get close enough, we could line the bay doors up with each other and you could go straight from here to the other ship's cargo bay, I just need permission from Tails to board and a little time to line us up." Eggman told us.

"I can get you the permission, go ahead and start getting lined up, I'll go and talk to Tails and get the shields down." Amy said, walking towards the little ship-plane she had used to get on board. She left, and a couple of minutes later, the shields went down, and the bay doors of the Blue Typhoon opened.

Eggman lined up the ships quickly and carefully; and soon enough, I was pushing Shadow on the table into the Blue Typhoon, Amy was waiting for us in the cargo bay. She started walking to the hospital area, and we passed by Knuckles, who was doing his best to awaken the master emerald. He wasn't making any progress, and the huge gem was still a dull, dark green. When he saw us, he did a double take and stared at Shadow, who despite all his injuries was still grinning his head off like a lunatic, I was really worried about him.

"Dude, you okay?" The echidna asked him.

"Nope." Shadow replied, not seeming too displeased about this fact.

The echidna gave me a quizzical look as we rushed past, and I shrugged. Knuckles stared at us as we kept going, and Amy led us the rest of the way to the on-board hospital.

When we made it there, there was a proper hospital bed waiting along with a small tan rabbit pulling out various equipment and first aid supplies. When we came in, she told us to put Shadow on the bed so she could clean him up. She couldn't have been older than nine years, but she seemed to know what she was doing with the hospital supplies, and we obliged. Once Amy and I got Shadow on the hospital bed, the rabbit handed us both wet cloths and told us to wipe as much of the blood as we could from around his wounds. I took my cloth and, as gently as I could, I unwrapped the black fabric from his head. it was completely soaked, and I threw it away. Even more carefully than I had unwrapped his makeshift bandage, I dabbed the blood away from around his gash, making sure not to touch the flattened spot on his forehead. Amy did the same with the wound on his side, slowly unwrapping the hem of her dress from it, and then using her cloth to wipe the blood away.

Even though I was being extremely gentle, Shadow involuntarily flinched every time I touched his head with the cloth. He closed his eyes to keep himself from flinching too much and focused on remaining still. The crazy grin had disappeared from his features, and he wore a grimace of pain as we cleaned him up. His gash had _finally_ stopped bleeding.

When we had finished cleaning up his major wounds, I could tell that Amy was itching to leave. I remembered how much she cared for Sonic and realised that she was probably worried out of her mind about whether he was okay or not.

I looked at her sympathetically. "Amy, I've got this from here, maybe you should go check on Sonic." I told her. She gave me a grateful look and ran out of the room.

The rabbit pulled out a brown bottled labeled 'peroxide'. "Okay, mister Shadow, this will sting a little, but I need you to hold very still." She informed him.

She took a cotton ball from a container and put some of the peroxide on it. Shadow braced himself for the inevitable sting and she rubbed it very lightly over the gash on his forehead. Apparently that stuff stung more than a little, because Shadow yelped and jerked back.

"All done." The rabbit said as she pulled out a roll of clean white bandages and started wrapping his gash up. "Now for your side." She added, pulling out the peroxide again and another cotton ball.

This time, Shadow was more ready for it, and didn't move while she rubbed the cotton ball over his side wound. Again, she wrapped it up in the white linen bandages. She did the same for the gash on his right leg. Now that his main wounds were taken care of, we went to work cleaning the rest of him up. We didn't dare mess with his skull until we could take an x-ray of it and his foot. We managed to get all the dried blood out of his mane and fur, and we had taken his gloves off to clean them out. If it weren't for the flat part of his skull, the bandages, and his twisted foot, I would've guessed that he was just as healthy as always.

The rabbit, whose name I had learned was Cream, pulled out a weird device that looked like a big camera, but had special parts on it that also made it look something like a television. I guessed this was the x-ray machine.

"Head or foot first, Mister Shadow?" Cream asked him.

Shadow thought about it for a second. "Foot I guess, I know more or less what my skull will look like. I'm curious about my foot." He answered.

The rabbit complied with his request and propped his foot up. Then she gently and carefully removed his rocket boot before positioning the machine to look at his foot and pressing a button to capture the x-ray image. An image appeared on the television screen facing the bed Shadow was in. We could see that the bones in his foot were very out of place, but thank Chaos, none were broken. It was only dislocated, and I sighed in relief. Cream studied the image for another minute, then looked to me.

"It looks like I can just quickly twist it back into place." She told me. "However, it will hurt, a lot. Even more than the peroxide. It would be best if he had something to squeeze, like your hand." She stated, looking at me expectantly. "I'll give him some ibuprofen, and I will numb his foot, but a lot of bones are out of place, and he will most likely still feel a lot of pain." She said this quite bluntly, but I still couldn't imagine holding _(of all people) Shadow's_ hand. When she saw my expression, she continued, "of course, if that's too weird, then I can get someone else to hold his hand, but I don't want him jerking away and messing it up any more than it already is, so I won't pull it into place until he has someone's hand to hold." She waited for me to respond.** (Awkward...)**

Shadow sighed, "I'm assuming I have no say in this?" He complained.

"No, you must be holding something, end of discussion." The rabbit replied stubbornly.

"Fine, I'll hold his hand, but only because you're telling me that I have to." I said, and grabbed his hand before he could say anything else.

Cream gave him some ibuprofen and injected a shot of numbing medicine into his foot.

The rabbit firmly grabbed ahold of his foot. "I'm going to count to ten, okay mister Shadow?" She asked and he nodded in reply. "One... Two... Ten!" She said, and yanked his foot back into position.

Shadow's eyes widened, and he hollered in pain. He death gripped my hand, and I thought he was going to break it from how hard he was squeezing it. He jerked his head back into his pillow. It only lasted a second, and then his foot went back into its regular position with a pop and a click. He let go of my hand as soon as his foot was back to normal.

He was breathing hard, trying to get his pain under control. "What happened to three through nine?" He demanded angrily.

"Sorry mister Shadow, but it would have hurt a lot more if you had tensed up, so I had to surprise you!" Cream responded innocently.

I was rubbing my hand that was sore from being squeezed so hard. "He nearly broke my hand, you weren't kidding when you said he needed something to hold onto." I smirked.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I was caught off guard."

"Apology accepted" I replied, "it's not your fault."

He looked gratefully at me for a second, then his features went back to their usual impassive expression. He flexed his foot. "Are you going to x-ray my skull now?" He asked Cream, suddenly all business.

"Yes, if you want." The tan rabbit replied.

"All right, lets get this over with." He said.

Just then, Cosmo, Knuckles, Amy, Chris, and Tails ran into the room looking worried.

"We heard somebody scream, what happened?" Amy fretted.

Tails saw the image of the dislocated foot on the screen. "Ouch..." He said, then looked at Shadow's foot to see that it was back to normal. "Oh..." He trailed off, realising what the scream had been about.

Knuckles also looked at the X-ray image. "Dude, ouch. Are you okay?"

Shadow gave a wry smile, "My answer still hasn't changed since the last time you asked. Though I am feeling a bit better."

"I hope so, we've been at this for almost two and a half hours now." Cream piped up.

"Have we? How about that." I commented.

"Actually, we're almost done, I doubt there's anything I can do about his skull, but we should take an X-ray of it all the same." The rabbit told us all.

"I'll stay and help." The seedrian quietly put in.

"I'll stick around too." Amy said.

"Well, I'm not much use anywhere else, I'm not making any progress with the emerald, so I'll stay too. Anyways, I wanna know how bad it is." Knuckles informed us.

"I put the ship on autopilot, so I don't need to go anywhere. And I know a thing or two about bones, so maybe I can help." Tails said, standing next to Cosmo.

"Ditto." Inserted the human, Chris, who was standing in the corner.

"All right, it looks like you have an audience, mister Shadow." Cream stated.

Shadow groaned. "Ugh, _wonderful_." He said sarcastically. "Let's get this over with."

Cream obliged and set up the X-ray device. Shadow patiently waited for her to finish aiming it properly and closed his eyes. Everyone in the room settled into a chair or stood by the door. I remained standing where I was, next to Shadow.

"Ready?" Cream asked.

"Go ahead." Shadow told her.

Cream pressed the button and a second later an image appeared on the screen. I heard several sharp intakes of breath, and Knuckles blew a long, low whistle.

"Boy, Sonic really did a number on you." The echidna commented.

I was afraid to look at the screen. I still felt like it was my fault that he was hurt, and seeing how bad it was would only make it worse, instead I watched Shadow's face. He still had his eyes closed, I got the impression that he didn't really want to see what his skull looked like either. He must have felt me staring at him, because he looked up and saw me. We just stared back at each other for a second, then with some unsaid agreement, we both looked at the screen at the same time. I gasped at what I saw, and then I heard Shadow moan and flop his head back onto the pillow. Then he took a sharp breath because he had moved his head too quickly and the fragments of his forehead shifted. I saw the other people who saw the X-ray first had been watching our silent communication and waiting for us to look. Knuckles seemed amused by Shadow's reaction.

The X-ray looked _so_ much worse than I thought it would. The majority of the image was filled with an almost entirely white web of cracks. That was the flattened area of his forehead. It was almost impossible to distinguish any one piece, because it had been broken into so many tiny fragments. Most of them seemed to be in the right places, and were beginning to heal, but a few of the fragments were shifted up or down and were preventing the surrounding fragments from healing properly.

Any normal person would likely have died with a forehead like that. Shadow should count himself lucky to still be breathing. And this was what it looked like after he had had about three hours to heal.

Everyone was watching Shadow, who was glaring at the ceiling like he could burn a hole in it.

It was Tails who broke the silence. "Shadow, you should be dead."

Shadow quit glaring at the ceiling and closed his eyes. He mumbled something too quietly for us to hear.

We were afraid to talk for a moment, then Knuckles cut the tension. "I'm sorry, we couldn't hear you." He said.

Shadow opened his eyes and glared at him. "I should have died fifty years ago on the ARK, I should have died last year when I fell from frickin' space! Are you really surprised?" He yelled, obviously still agitated over the state of his skull.

Knuckles backed off. "Sorry, dude, I just wanted to know what you said."

Shadow closed his eyes and calmed himself down, when he opened them again, he looked much less angry. "Sorry, I... Overreacted." He apologised to Knuckles for his outburst. Then he turned to Cream and Tails. "Is there anything at all you can do to fix it?" He asked hopefully.

Tails and Cream looked at each other, then they both looked sympathetically at the ebony hedgehog in front of them. "No" they both responded.

"If they were larger pieces, maybe we could do something, but as it is, we don't have the expertise to do anything, so we can only keep them from shifting any more and wait for your skull to heal naturally." The rabbit sadly told him.

He sighed heavily in defeat and sunk back into the bed, seeming to cave inward on himself. For the first time, he showed how much his injuries were affecting him, and he looked like the fifty-year old hedgehog he was. He didn't bother opening his eyes when he spoke again. "What do I do then?" He asked in a depressed tone.

Cream didn't seem worried about his sudden change in mood. "Unless you want to see what a certified doctor can do about it, you'll just have to stay here with us until it heals on its own. It shouldn't take too long, only a few weeks, maybe a month at most, you seem to be a very fast healer, even faster than mister Sonic!"

"A month..." He repeated slowly, still with closed eyes. He opened his eyes to see everyone staring at him. "I'd like to be left alone, please." He requested, addressing Cream.

Cream nodded, and started shooing us all out of the room. Before she left, she reminded Shadow, "whatever you do, don't fall asleep, unless we have someone watching you, it's very dangerous for you to be sleeping this soon with a head injury that severe, you could cause serious brain damage."

Shadow nodded in understanding. He lay back in the bed and stared pensively at the X-ray image of his skull on the screen. Cream softly closed the door behind herself as she left the room.

I stopped her as she started walking down the hall. "What's going on with Shadow? I've never seen him this depressed before, will he be okay?" I questioned her.

"Mister Shadow is going to be _fine_. Don't worry about him. He's likely just bruised his brain, and he's having mood-swings is all. I advise that you stay by the door, because he'll probably ask for some company in a few minutes."

"How can I not worry about him? And what's all this about mood-swings?" I pestered her.

"Mister Shadow is very resilient, and I'm confident that he will be fully healed within the month. I doubt he'll even develop any permanent brain damage, as long as he's careful. _Don't worry about him_. And the mood-swings are most likely caused by the fact that he's been injured in the part of his brain that has to do with emotions. His injury is literally right on top of that part of the brain." She informed me in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. **(I actually looked this up, its true)**

"Okay... Bye then." I said, and went to go sit by the door.

The tan rabbit waved cheerfully at me as she walked down the hall and around the corner. I was alone in the hallway, so I looked through the window of the clinic to see Shadow sitting up in his bed with his legs dangling over the side. He was leaning down to massage his right ankle. I didn't blame him for wanting to get up and move around. I'd be a little antsy after being forced to lie down for almost three hours straight as well. I knocked on the door and Shadow slowly looked up, and seeing me through the window, waved me in. Looks like Cream was right after all.

I walked into the room. "_What_ do you think you're doing?" I asked.

Shadow looked at me innocently. "I was just gonna walk around to exercise my ankle a bit. No one said I couldn't." He explained quickly.

I gave him a long hard look, then went over to help him get down off the bed. He got down slowly, then steadied himself on my shoulder. I helped him walk over to the television, which was still showing the depressing X-ray image of his fragmented skull. He made me help him get closer to the screen so he could reach over and flip it off.

"There, that's better." He said, dusting his hands off. He looked pleased with himself, and I couldn't help but admire the way he so spontaneously and calmly put his injuries behind him. He looked over at the far wall and started to head in that direction. He was walking almost completely by himself now, and only barely held onto my shoulder to stabilise himself. There was a small, circular-shaped window in the wall, and he walked directly over to it. Just out of the window was a breath-taking view of the entire planet just below us.

Shadow's shoulders dropped and he sighed. "I remember now. It was like this every day back on the ARK. Maria and I would sit by the windows and watch Mobius below us. We used to imagine what it would be like to actually walk on the surface of the planet. She would always have these fantasies about how it would be like to walk in actual field or go shopping, or even feed ducks in a park. The doctor had all sorts of books to show us pictures of what things look like, and she was fascinated by ducks." He gave a happy half-smile, like he was remembering something funny. "She would talk about them all the time, 'Shadow, aren't ducks just so cute?' And 'Shadow, when we get to Mobius, you'll be sure to take me to feed the ducks, right?'..." He trailed off, lost in his newfound memories.

I watched Shadow as he stared out the window, remembering all the good times he'd had with his only friend in the world before she'd died. He must have felt awful when she sacrificed herself for him. I couldn't even imagine.

Suddenly, Shadow gave a great big yawn.

I smiled. "Looks like somebody needs a nap," I teased.

"Maybe your right, I could use some sleep." He admitted, and started to head back towards the bed, he didn't need my support anymore.

"Don't fall asleep just yet." I told him. "I'll go and get Cream, she said something about keeping you awake without a watch, so I'll tell her that you're tired."

Shadow nodded. "I hate feeling like an invalid, but you're right, and I don't really want permanent brain damage." He sat up in the bed to help himself stay awake. "Go, and hurry, I won't wait forever."

I flew out of the room and down the corridor towards the control room. I figured that Cream was that way, from the direction she was heading when she left.

When I walked into the glass-domed room, I saw the mayhem ensuing. Tails was ordering the other mobians around and there were screens showing news reports of a huge beast that had been tearing apart forests and towns. There were blurry pictures of the beast. It was Sonic. He was out of his mind, tearing apart everything in his path. Eggman was on another screen, he and Tails were working out the best way to stop the hedgehog (or Werehog, in this case).

"I still think we should contain him until we can find out what's wrong with him." The doctor told Tails.

"I'm not putting my best friend in a cage!" The kitsune thundered. "Sonic's just... Confused. I'm sure we can solve this without treating him like a wild animal. Sonic is still in there _somewhere_, I'm sure of it!"

"Well, what do _you_ suggest we do?" Eggman asked.

There was a brief silence. "Tails, I don't like it one bit, but... Eggman is right. All we can do is catch Sonic and try to figure out what's wrong with him." Amy said from the corner where she was watching the reports. She looked very defeated.

"No! We can't put him in a cage! We just can't! We'll... Umm, we'll send a team down to try and calm him down! Let's at least try that first! If... If that doesn't work, _then_ we'll try Eggman's idea. Okay?" He said desperately, not wanting to give up on his friend.

"Fine. We'll try it your way, but at the first sign that it's not working, we pull them out of there and contain Sonic." The doctor compromised, knowing the kitsune wouldn't agree with him without at least trying to reason with his friend first.

From the news reports and the pictures on the screen, it was obvious that Sonic wasn't in his right mind. There were photographs of streets that had been torn up by huge claws, with houses in shambles on the sides. There were no death reports, so Sonic hadn't killed anybody... Yet. At least he was only attacking inanimate things. No one had realised that the monster causing so much chaos and destruction was Sonic, and the citizens were calling him 'the doomsday beast' or just 'the beast'. There were religious persons on the streets with signs saying: 'We told you so' and 'Pray for your souls before its too late!'. There was a reporter from a helicopter getting a live video feed of the beast trampling through a forest and knocking trees out of his way like they were no more than annoying branches. Apparently the helicopter was traveling at top speed, and it was still only barely keeping up with him.

"I'm going for sure." The young fox stated stubbornly. "Who's coming with me?"

"I'll go with you." The pink hedgehog told him as she walked over.

"I'm coming as well." Knuckles declared as he jogged across the room.

"Don't forget me!" A young human exclaimed as he ran across the room.

No one else joined the team heading down to Mobius, so the four of them huddled up and began planning out how they were going to stop Sonic. I was almost mad at the lot of them. Shadow was injured so severely to the point of having been on the verge of death because no one had offered him help when he asked for it. Now here they were, about to do something _just_ as dangerous, and everybody in the room joins in to help. Where was this enthusiasm when Shadow needed help? Then again, I really can't talk, as I was one of the people who had ditched him in his time of need.

No one had noticed that I'd walked in yet. The rabbit I was looking for was bringing food to everyone. It was long past lunch, and I was hungry, so I flew over to her to take a sandwich and ask her about Shadow.

"Hey Cream!" I greeted, walking up to her. She waved in reply. "I need to ask you something." I told her.

"Hey miss Rouge! What is it?" She asked.

"First, can I have a sandwich? They look delicious." She nodded and I took one. "Second, Shadow is tired, and we wanted to check with you to see if it was okay if he went to sleep." I finished.

"We'll, he _can_ sleep, but someone has to watch him to make sure he doesn't shift too much in his sleep. The rest of us are going to be busy, so you have to watch him. All you have to do is make sure he doesn't end up with his forehead in his pillow. And if he starts moving too much like he's having a nightmare, then you should definitely wake him up." Cream instructed.

I put my hand on my forehead in a saluting pose. "Yes ma'am," I said, and began to walk back to Shadow.

"Wait a minute!" She exclaimed, causing me to stop and turn around.

"_What_?" I asked when I saw her expression.

"Don't forget to take a sandwich for mister Shadow! He might be hungry." She replied in a sweet, concerned voice.

I smiled at her thoughtfulness. "Of course not, I'll take... _This_ one for him. Thanks for reminding me Cream." I said, choosing a roast beef, Swiss cheese and pickle sandwich for the ebony hedgehog. I turned to go, and this time I got all the way back to the clinic without any interruptions.

When I got back to the room, I saw Shadow leaning back against the headboard of the hospital bed, his eyelids drooping from his sleepiness. He sat up when I walked into the room.

"Hey, I brought you some food if you're hungry." I said.

"Oh, is _that_ what took you so long?" He asked sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.

"No, it's just a little crazy in the control room right now. Cream had some sandwiches and she asked me to bring you one." I explained as sassily as I could.

Shadow tiredly rubbed one of his eyes with his fist. "Okay, I think I'll take the sandwich, I am a bit hungry. And it actually looks quite delicious." He stated, and I handed him the roast beef, Swiss cheese, and pickle sandwich. I was glad I had chosen one he'd like.

He quickly ate his sandwich and yawned. "Go ahead and fall asleep, I just have to watch you and make sure you don't move too much." I told him. I went to sit in the chair by the door.

"Okay, fine." He yawned again. "Good night." He laid down and closed his eyes and I saw him relax as his breathing slowed down and he fell asleep.

"Sweet dreams, Shadow." I said, even though I thought he was already fast asleep and probably couldn't hear me. His ear flicked and he faintly smiled in his sleep. _Nothing_ got past him, and I smiled at how harmless and sweet he looked with the smile on his face as he slept. I know Shadow is the last person who would want sympathy, but he seemed so lonely. It was no wonder he was so unhappy all the time; he had nobody who cared about him.

_I'm going to change that,_ I decided_. Shadow deserves to have someone care about him. I'm going to be that person. No more making fun of him. Well, maybe a little. But definitely not as much, _I conceded_. I'm going to be Shadow's new best friend. He deserves that much._

I settled back to keep an eye on the sleeping hedgehog.

**AN: Hey, hope you liked it, I've decided to quit with the comments nonsense, so you win... (More like I like writing to procrastinate from doing my homework so much that I've already written like, ten thousand more words, and I am not a patient person.) (teehee, I'm the real winner XD) anybody got any issues with Shadow x Rouge, suck it up, because I don't care, they would be so cute together. Chapters out once or twice a week at most, once every two weeks at least.  
-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96**


	8. Chapter 8- The Beast

**AN: Okay, here's the next part of the story. I'm thinking about bringing Tikal into the story, I want y'alls opinions on that though. Remember, I'm always looking for suggestions, Kapiche? (I think that's how it's spelled, it sounds like Quiche) Whatever. Quiche aside, here is chapter 8!**

**(oh, and by the way I do not own BBC radio in any way, shape, or form. That would be AA TOTAL disaster. O_o)**

Chapter 8- The Beast **(yet another unimaginative title -_-)**

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mobian citizen (young male)**

"You can't catch me! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! I'm too fast for you!" I yelled in a sing-song voice to my friend behind me, we were playing a game of tag where whoever is 'it' is Doctor Eggman, the bad guy, and the people being chased are whichever of the Sonic heroes that they want to be. I always pick Sonic, he's my hero. He rescued my family one time from a fire. We were all trapped in the blaze, trying to keep it at bay when a sudden blue flash swept around the whole house and all the fire was blown out. If it weren't for him, my family and I wouldn't be around.

"You can't run forever, hedgehog!" My friend shrieked behind me. She loved to be the bad guy, she usually let me get away on purpose just so she could pretend to be Eggman for a little longer. She was great at being a bad guy too. She loved to come up with stuff to yell at me and anybody else we were playing with. Today it was just Emily and myself. We weren't supposed to be outside, actually. Our parents had made us stay in the house because of the big monster that was causing lots of trouble. We had managed to sneak out early in the morning while it was still dark outside so we could play tag in the woods.

I made it to a small clearing and stopped to hide behind a tree to catch my breath. Emily must have heard me heavily breathing because she jumped out and tackled me.

"I got you Torrin! That means that _you're_ Eggman now." She told me, her hands on her hips.

"Okay, who are you gonna be?" I asked.

"Shadow, duh! Who else?" She exclaimed like it was obvious.

I rolled my eyes. "All right, _Ultimate Life Form_, you better run cuz' I'm gonna catch you!" I shouted as I got up to start running after her.

_CRACK! _We heard a tree snap from somewhere far off to our left. Both of us stood stock still.

_SNAP! CRACK! CRUNCH!_ The sounds were getting louder, closer.

Neither of us dared make a move. The sounds of cracking trees and snapping branches were soon very close, and we could hear the thumping of heavy, fast stomping coming in our direction. I looked at Emily. She was standing straight up, staring in the direction of the noises. She was shaking in terror. I wanted to grab her and start running in the opposite direction, but I was petrified where I stood. She looked at me and I saw her eyes wide in fear. Mine were probably similar.

_What is it?_ She mouthed to me.

_I don't know, should we run?_ I mouthed back, but she just looked at me quizzically, I was never very good at mouthing things, but my throat was too dry to make any sound. I shrugged and she got the message.

_Run?_ She mouthed to me. I nodded my head vigorously, but we were to late. The doomsday beast was upon us.

_CRASH!_ The doomsday beast burst into the clearing, then skidded to a halt with a howl of surprise as it saw us. Emily and I shrieked and jumped back as it nearly ran into us. A few leaves flew up and some dirt flew in our direction; but other than being scared out of our minds, Emily and I were fine. There was a tense moment as we stared at the huge black monster as it rubbed its snout from the nose plant it just performed.

Emily and I were near the edge of the trees huddling together and shivering in fear while staring at the beast before us. The doomsday monster finished rubbing his muzzle, and then looked the two of us over hungrily. It seemed confused for a second as it stared at us shivering in fear. I dared to look at its eyes and saw that they were green, and there was a certain suppressed intelligence in them. The creature reached out a massive paw like it wanted to shake hands or something, but Emily let loose a high-pitched shriek of terror next to me. The beast's eyes immediately dilated and he howled like he was about to attack. He started to charge forward, but at the last second, he seemed to hold himself back and tore off into the trees to the right, deeper into the forest.

Emily fainted and thumped to the ground next to me. I had stopped shaking, and only my hands and knees were still a bit jittery. My knees buckled under me and I plopped to the ground next to my unconscious friend.

We weren't that far from my house, and somebody must have heard us scream, because five minutes later, my dad and older brother came running into the clearing to find us. Emily was still unconscious, so as my dad carried us back to the house, I told them what happened. They were amazed that we hadn't been hurt by the creature. My parents were furious that we had snuck away, and called Emily's parents as well to tell them what had happened. We were both grounded for a month.

I will never forget that look in the beast's eyes though. For a second, he didn't seem to be a monster, he looked more like a victim.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Miles "Tails" Prower**

"So how are we going to get through to him?" Amy asked me. We had just huddled up, and now we needed to work on a plan of action.

"Before we do anything, we need to get rid of those reporters." Chris reminded us.

"You're right, Chris! We don't want any of them to get hurt if things get ugly." I said. "I'll take care of that, lets come up with a plan for once we get to Sonic first."

"All right, what do you think, Knuckles?" The human asked.

"Well," the echidna looked to the news reports on the screens. "I don't think Sonic will listen to us right away. We need to find a way to get through to him. I think we should surround him and just try to force him to calm down."

"How are we gonna make him calm down by surrounding him? That'll just make him more frustrated!" Amy exclaimed.

"We knock him down, and don't let him back up until he does what we want." Knuckles told her.

I put my hand on my head exasperatedly. "And how do you suppose we do that? If you haven't noticed, Sonic has enough power to take down _entire cities._ We don't have enough strength." I sighed. "Lets just take care of the media for now, I'm sure _something_ will come to us." I assured them.

"All right, I'll come with you Tails." Amy volunteered.

"Okay, thanks, I could use the help." I said gratefully.

We walked over to the main screen and control panel. I typed a few codes in, and started communications. I typed in the news hotline to reach the news crew.

"Hello, this is MBC 1 radio! The most watched news station in all of Mobius! Bringing the news _to you_." The recording of the Mobian broadcasting corporation channel 1 radio's title and slogan ended.

**(its supposed to be like BBC 1 radio, but I guess only those British Folks out there would know what that is...)**

"Hello, Sadie Sanders speaking, how may I be of assistance?" A woman's voice answered the call.

"Hi, this is Miles Prower speaking." I responded.

"And I'm Amy Rose!" The pink hedgehog added excitedly.

"We are friends of Sonic the Hedgehog, and we need to get a message to all the news reporters following the doomsday beast." I cringed at the last part.

"Friends of Sonic's!?" She exclaimed. "No way! He's my hero! Can I talk to him?" Sadie asked.

"Ummm, sorry, but he's really busy right now. He asked me to tell all the reporters that they need to stay away from the creature. We're getting ready to take it on and we don't want anyone around in case it gets violent. We hope to keep this mission clean and fast, but in case it doesn't work out that way, it would be best not to have anyone in the area." I explained.

"Awww, well all right, I'll alert our reporters." She sounded disappointed. "We got a tip about some civilians who ran into the beast, so I'll send them to that story. Don't worry about the other stations, I'll take care of them too. Anything for the heroes of Mobius!" She finished excitedly.

"Thank you so much, ma'am! We really appreciate the cooperation!" Amy said happily.

"No problem! Bye!" Sadie said as she hung up the phone.

"That's really nice of her to inform the other stations. It makes our job a whole lot easier." I mused out loud.

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "But now we're expected to get down to Mobius even faster than before."

"True, so what are we going to do?" I asked the group.

"We should just get down to him before he gets to another city. Let's just stop him for now, and then we can figure out what we'll do. Sonic would just go with his gut." Amy said.

"Yeah, he would. Anyways, there is no guessing how he'll react until we're right in front of him, so all we really _can_ do is get to him and stop him." Chris stated.

"All right, then that's what we'll do." I decided.

"Okay, so should we go now?" Amy asked me.

"The sooner the better," I responded, "everybody should get ready quickly, and then we'll go. I'll get the X-Tornado ready, see you guys at the hangar in five minutes!" I started to jog down to the ship hangar.

"All right!" Knuckles fist-pumped. "_Finally_, Some action!" He sprinted to his room to get ready.

I shook my head in amusement. "Oh, Knuckles..."

I continued towards my plane. Amy was already dressed and had her hammer, so she followed behind me.

We arrived at my extraordinary aircraft very quickly. I hopped into the pilot's seat and pushed the button that extends the seating so that four people can ride. The plane stretched in the middle about three metres, and two seats popped up behind the already existing seats. It was much slower and harder to steer the plane in this mode, but we all needed to make it to Mobius, and that meant I needed four seats. Amy hopped into the seat behind mine.

"Do you think this is a good idea?" She asked me.

"No, generally anything that makes Knuckles fist-pump like that isn't a great idea, but we don't have that many options, so I'll go with it." I responded, making Amy laugh a little.

"Do you think we can stop Sonic and get him back alright?" She inquired, suddenly dead serious. She looked pained, like she really didn't want to do what she knew she was going to end up having to do. Her expression reflected my own feelings exactly.

"I'm sure nothing bad will happen, Sonic will recognise us, and it won't come to... An incident."

"You're probably right;" Amy acknowledged, "but I'm just so worried! What if he _doesn't_ recognise us? Then what do we do?"

"Then... We have to use Eggman's plan. He's making a cage right now. One thats made out of some special material that he thinks will be able to restrain Sonic. Y'know, just in case..." I replied.

"I really don't want to end up putting him a cage, that would be horrible." Amy told me. "The one thing that Sonic lives for is his freedom, and he would be so unhappy if he was stuck behind bars. I don't know if I could live with myself if that happened."

I was about to agree with her when Chris came running in, out of breath and clutching some tools and gadgets. "I'm here! Are we ready to go?" He looked at my plane. "Whoa! Since when can it do that?" He exclaimed as he hopped into the third seat

I grinned at his impressed expression. "We're just waiting on Knuckles now. I added this function to the plane after we left your planet. I was bored and decided that it might be a good idea to add a few extra seats since we've had some issues with not enough seats before." I explained.

Knuckles came in just then, his shovel claws tucked under one arm. "Okay, I'm here! Are we ready to leave?"

"Yeah, we were just waiting for you, hop in and we'll go." I told him.

"Great!" He said excitedly as he jumped into the last seat.

"Okay, ready for takeoff!" I said as the bay doors slid open.

The cockpit glass thumped into place above our heads. Everyone finished strapping in and I started the engine. There was a satisfying hum as the engine fired up. I always liked to do a countdown before I took to the air, so I started. "Five, four, three, two, one... Zero! And we have liftoff!" I shouted over the sound of the airplane shooting out of the bay. The start was rougher than usual because of the extra weight, but other than that it took off just fine.

I plugged in the coordinates for the forest Sonic was currently rampaging through and the plane began its descent. In a few minutes we were within a mile of the forest. In another minute we were skimming the trees looking for the trail of destruction.

"There!" Amy shouted, pointing ahead to our right. Sure enough, there was a big gap through the foliage that seemed to be in a more or less straight line. It was fairly long, and we followed the path for another long fifteen minutes of silence before finally getting to the front of it. The front of the path of destruction was extending ahead incredibly quickly. It was terrifying watching the huge, strong trees falling over and snapping in half; leaving behind an ugly gash in the forest. We increased our speed so as to catch up to the front of it, and within seconds, we were flying directly above it. It was then that we finally saw Sonic.

It was difficult from my angle to spot him, but the other people in my plane could see him just fine if they looked to their right and down through the cockpit dome's glass. At the source of the cracking and crashing trees, was the beast. He was enormous and a shade of blue that could be mistaken for pitch-black in the dark. He was running on all fours through the trees, not bothering to dodge or even swat away the trees in his way. Anything that he hit on his one-hedgehog stampede was immediately demolished. Nothing stood a chance. Even a boulder that he came a cross only delayed him for a fraction of a second before it was smashed to bits in his wake.

"How on earth are we supposed to stop... _That_?" Amy asked with obvious worry.

"I'm suddenly not so confident that surrounding him is a good idea..." Knuckles admitted, much to my amusement, even though the situation was anything but funny. I couldn't help myself, I laughed. Everyone looked at me like I was nuts, which just succeeded in making me laugh harder.

"Tails?... Umm, are you okay?" Knuckles asked me. Which made me think of Shadow's response to that same question, and sent me into a whole new fit of laughter. I managed to flip the autopilot on before I doubled over. Now people were looking at me with genuine worry etched on their faces.

I tried to stop laughing, I really did. No matter what I told myself, what I thought of, I literally _could not_ stop laughing. The thing was, I wasn't laughing because I found something funny, it was quite the opposite. This situation was so awful and scary, that the only thing I could do to keep myself from screaming and crying was choose any other emotion. Considering Knuckles' somewhat ironic and humorous statement, the obvious and immediate choice for my mind was laughter. It's like that old saying, 'sometimes all you can do is laugh to keep yourself from crying'.

"Tails, what's so funny?" Chris asked me after a minute.

I tried to answer him through my laughter, "n-n-n-noth-th-thing" I stuttered, "i-i-I c-can't st-s-stop!" I explained.

Then Amy started laughing too. Knuckles and Chris watched the two of us like we were insane, and Amy started snorting from laughing too hard. It sounded really funny, and soon Knuckles and Chris joined in too. The four of us were just sitting in the X-tornado, laughing our heads off. We were supposed to be chasing Sonic and bringing the "doomsday beast's" reign of terror to an end, but instead we were laughing from a mixture of stress, worry, and above all, dread. I don't remember exactly what finally got us all to stop, but eventually we hiccuped ourselves into silence.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I feel a whole lot better." Knuckles interrupted the quiet.

"Now that you mention it, I feel a whole lot less worried as well." Amy mused.

I thought about it for a second before responding. "Me too, I guess we're all just tired. It is almost five in the morning, and we haven't had any sleep."

"Right, we should get a move on." Chris suggested.

"Of course, are we all ready?" I asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Said Amy.

"I'm ready for anything!" Exclaimed Knuckles.

"Lets go save our friend." Chris said with determination.

"Then lets go get Sonic!" I shouted as I flipped off auto pilot and took the plane into a dive for a large clearing a little bit ahead of the path.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amy Rose**

Our landing was more than a little nerve-wracking. First of all, the dive was rough, and we were all shaken up a lot on the way down. Then we found out that the clearing wasn't as large as Tails had thought, and he barely managed to land the ship without crashing into the trees. Everybody was still gripping their armrests when the plane finally shuddered to a stop.

"Is it over?" Chris asked.

"It wasn't _that_ bad... But yeah, it's over." Tails responded.

We all got out of the ship as quickly as possible, and we started to get ready to take on Sonic. We could already hear him, his heavy foot-falls were coming closer and closer.

"Any second now..." Tails whispered. We were all in defence positions, spread out in front of the plane so that Sonic would have no place to run when he arrived. Chris was holding some special gadget he'd invented. It looked like a pair of handcuffs, but they were much larger, and they were meant mostly to trip a person by clasping on and then retracting that cord in the middle. He was going to throw them at Sonic as soon as he showed up. In theory, that would slow him down enough for us to surround him and try to calm him down.

I still wasn't sure exactly how surrounding Sonic would help us calm him down at all, but that's all we had for a plan, so that's what we had to work with. The rhythmic thumping of Sonic's stampede and the accompanying staccato of snapping trees and branches became louder and louder until it was the only sound we could hear. It was like a drumroll at a funeral, foreboding and frightening. When the sound got to be so deafening that he had to be almost on top of us, it stopped. Everything was silent, then we heard a low, menacing growl, and the doomsday beast revealed himself.

He slowly entered the clearing. The first part of him we saw was his massive paw taking a slow step into the fading moonlight. Then we saw his eyes in the shadows. They glowed in the darkness, like miniature lighthouses in the fog. He approached slowly. He had obviously been aware of us before reaching the clearing. Perhaps he had seen our plane, or heard our crash, or even just smelled us. He was very much on the defence, but he seemed almost curious about us. Maybe he recognised us on some level. That thought made me hopeful.

Sonic took another step forward, and we could see his face and shoulders. He had twigs and leaves stuck in his fur, and streaks of mud as well. The look on his face was very strange. It was hard to read his expression, because his face was so different than usual, and there was a lot of mud on it, like he'd rubbed his face in the dirt. But through the strange features, there were many emotions that I could detect. The main expression I was seeing was curiosity. He could tell that we planned to stop him, but I think he recognised us somewhat, so he was confused as to why we were opposing him. I think he wanted to know why he recognised us and why we wanted to stop him. I was sure that he had realised that we were waiting for him, but he had come to check us out anyways. If he wasn't curious, he could have easily gone around us, but instead he came. I carefully began put my hammer down. He immediately sensed the motion and turned his head in my direction. He snarled when he saw the weapon, and his ears went flat behind his head. His quills bristled up and all of a sudden, he seemed much less curious and much more fearsome.

I dropped my hammer in my surprise. It made a dull _thunk_ when it hit the ground. Sonic took another step in my direction, and he looked ready to attack. I took a step back and he sensed my fear. He saw that I had dropped my hammer, and determined that the weapon was no longer a threat. His ears perked up again, and he backed off a little. He looked curious again. If I had to put his expression into a thought then it would be: "_Who is this person who carries a large weapon, then drops it? What is she doing?_" I had managed to make him look even more curious and confused. Obviously he didn't want to hurt anything that wasn't a threat, so he wasn't trying to attack me, it was my hammer that had made him upset.

He seemed to have calmed down quite a bit now, so I took a step forward. Sonic gave a warning growl, but didn't stop me or freak out, so I took another step. Again, he looked displeased, but did not attack me.

"Amy, what are you doing?" Tails whispered to me.

"Shhh, I'm trying to calm him down. No. Sudden. Moves." I replied at the same volume.

Tails nodded and I took another step forward. This time Sonic looked uncomfortable. I was getting too close. He growled louder, and took a step back, away from me. He showed his teeth as a warning, but I could tell that no matter how close I got, he wouldn't attack me as long as I didn't have my hammer.

I didn't want him running away though, so I put my hands up in a calming gesture. "Sonic, calm down, we're your friends, we want to help you." I said in as soothing a voice as I could manage. Sonic seemed to calm down a bit and leaned forward so he could see me better.

I looked him in the eyes, and as slowly and openly as I could, took another step. This time, he kept watching me, but didn't growl at me or move away. Now we were just a few feet apart. I stopped. I knew that to earn the trust of Sonic, he had to make the last step. The pupils of his eyes, which at the beginning of the encounter had been dilated and nearly completely black, were now round and emerald green as they usually were.

**(Sonic, what big eyes you have! ****_All the better to see you with, Amy..._**** *shiver* jeeze, I just creeped myself out O.o)**

We locked eyes for a while. Then Sonic suddenly had an expression like he'd been hit in the face with a pan and then gave a wide, lopsided smile before closing the distance between us. He must have finally remembered me! I put my hand on his head, and he nuzzled into it happily. He looked like an excited puppy for a moment before he realised what he was doing and immediately stopped, looking a bit embarrassed. His fur was coarse and thick, while also being soft and fluffy. He seemed content to just let me rub his head and scratch behind his ears while he looked around at the other people in our group. His excitement just seemed to grow. His fur seemed to become a shade lighter than before, but still remained an extremely dark shade of his usual blue.

He seemed really happy to see us all. He must have finally remembered how he recognised us. It seemed to be a pretty simple happiness, so I wasn't sure exactly how much he remembered about us, but he appeared to realise that we were his friends, and that's what mattered. It made me glad to see him happy and relaxed, and I knew everything was gonna work out okay.

"Sonic, do you remember who I am? Do you know our names?" I asked, just to make sure. Sonic gave me an annoyed expression, like he was saying 'no duh, of course I do', and then he tried to tell me so.

All that came out was a barking noise. It sounded vaguely like language in the way that he emphasised certain sounds and paused in places, but it certainly wasn't any language that I spoke. Halfway through his sentence he realised that he wasn't speaking Mobian, and got upset. He frustratedly tried to form words, but it was all in vain, he could only bark and growl. And all this frustration led to his fur growing darker and darker, and he forgot about the rest of us for a moment.

Sonic became so upset, that I think he forgot exactly what he was upset about, and just reacted to his anger. His eyes dilated again, and he ferociously tore at the ground. I knew he was prone to anger as dark super sonic, but this was getting almost ridiculous. But I guess I'd get pretty frustrated if I couldn't talk to my friends either.

I took a few steps back, Sonic was out of my range of control. It looked like we were going to have to use force after all. Sonic was howling and throwing a fit in front of us all, we needed to get him under control before Eggman decided to pull us out and put him in a cage.

I picked up my hammer and hefted it onto my shoulder. As soon as I swung it up, Sonic stopped and froze, staring in my direction. He sunk low on all fours, in a defensive stance. His quills bristled, and his ears went flat again. His eyes were dilated, and he was glaring at my hammer, not at me, though. A low snarl built up in his throat, and he looked terrifying.

I nearly ran for it right then. I twirled my hammer to get his attention, and he made a sound somewhere between a growl and a roar. His muscles tensed up and he leaned back. He was about to make a jump at the hammer and knock it out of my hands.

There was a tense couple of seconds as I realised this and drew my hammer back. His muscles all released at once, and he launched forward. I didn't mean to, it was just a reflex, but as he sprung, I swung my hammer around and hit him in the jaw with enough force to knock him off to the side. He yelped as he was forced to the ground. He had been pushed about ten meters away, so we were safe for the moment.

"Ohmygosh! Sonic, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" I asked, worried that I'd actually hurt him. My question was answered when he sprung back to his feet with a howl as soon as he had landed.

He started to run back at me for round two when he was suddenly tripped by the special cuffs that Chris had invented. I'd almost forgotten that he and the others were behind me, but it was good to know that they all had my back.

Sonic skidded to a halt on his face. The cuffs had clasped onto his front right foot and his back left foot, and they had been pulled together. He was having a lot trouble trying to get up, and was not succeeding. The cuffs had been lucky enough to grab on to just the right two feet, and were more effective than we had hoped for. Sonic roared in frustration and twisted and turned, trying to break the cuffs. Even though he was trapped for the moment, he still looked formidable and deadly.

The four of us regrouped as Sonic attempted to break free from the trap. It wasn't long before he figured out how the break the chain. He eventually made himself stop thrashing and got his head down where his trapped feet were. He saw the problem, and with one swift bite, he snapped one of the cuffs to pieces.

He jumped back to his feet and tensed up again. This time he was more cautious, and made sure to keep an eye on all of us. A thousand details seemed to go through his head all at once. Suddenly, he seemed to decide that he wasn't going to get anywhere by fighting us, and so he turned around and started to run back to the forest to get away.

"Oh no you don't!" Knuckled exclaimed, and ran after him.

Sonic looked surprised, and half-turned back to the echidna who was charging at him. Knuckles took advantage of his surprise and attacked. He feinted to Sonic's head, then landed a punch in his stomach. Knuckles must have hit him pretty hard, because he doubled over, gasping for breath. When he had caught his breath, he turned back to Knuckles, who was standing off to the side waiting for Sonic to get back up. He got back on his feet and glared maliciously at the red echidna. With a howl, he charged at Knuckles, but he never made it.

Just at that moment, something strange happened. It was about 5:45 in the morning, and the sun began to rise. Sonic halted mid-run, and stared into the sudden bright light. He threw his head back in a pained howl, and he was enveloped in a glowing black-purple aura. We couldn't see exactly what was going on, but somewhere in the middle of whatever was happening, the howl turned into a more Mobian-sounding scream.

All at once, the aura disappeared, and Sonic was left lying out cold on the ground, completely back to normal.

**AN: yeah, I was thinking about having Tikal in the story, but I'm not sure if you guys consider her a legit Sonic character or not, so let me know, 'kay?**

**And as you guys can see, I'm not really sticking to my word limit, so I've pretty much given up on that, the chapters will be as long as they want to be.**

**-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96**


	9. Chapter 9- Realisation

**Author's Note: Finally! After what, five chapters? Back to Sonic's POV!**  
**Well, another SUPER long chapter, but what do you expect from the blue hedgehog himself? XD enjoy!**

Chapter 9- Realisation

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog**

I woke up with a massive migraine. It wasn't just my head that hurt though, most of my body ached. Especially my stomach though, I felt like I had been hit by a car.

My second thought was that I was on the ground. _Real_ ground, as in not the metal floor of our spaceship. I didn't move or open my eyes, because doing so would probably alert any predators that were around, and I was sure that I could hear footsteps behind me, which was not a good sign. It was better not to do anything when you didn't know where you were or why you were there.

I tried to remember how I got here, because I don't remember going back to Mobius.

_Did I fall from space?_ I asked myself. _I remember fighting the Metarex on top of our ship, then I got... A headache? And... Nothing. It's all a blank._

I tried to remember more about what had happened while I was fighting the Metarex, maybe then I would know what happened. _Me and Knuckles and Amy were fighting them by the control room, and... Cosmo. Cosmo came out and called to Knuckles, and she brought the chaos emeralds to me. And..._ I racked my brain trying to remember what came next. _Um..._

Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind.

_The emeralds surrounded me, I could feel their warmth. I stopped fighting to accept their power, I looked back to my friends. But a Metarex soldier had gotten past me! It shot at Amy! It... It hit her._

I bolted upright and opened my eyes. "Amy!" I yelled. I didn't care where I was, or what had happened anymore._ Was Amy okay?_

And there she was, standing right in front of me. She looked fine, if not a bit tired. She also looked a bit shocked at the fact that I had just suddenly sat up and yelled her name. I didn't care that I had just totally embarrassed myself in front of her, she was okay.

"You're okay!" I shouted happily, and jumped up to hug her. I was suddenly full of energy that had just not been there five seconds ago. She was surprised for a second, then accepted my embrace and hugged me back.

"Umm, Sonic, you know I love hugs and all, but what are you talking about?" She sounded pretty confused.

I pulled away from her. "You were hit by a Metarex, right?" I asked.

She looked confused for a second, then she remembered what I was talking about. Then she looked worried and searched my face. "Sonic, that was almost a day ago... Don't you remember what happened?"

"Wh-what? A day?" I staggered backwards. _Have I been out for a day? What's she talking about? What happened?_

That's when I noticed that Tails, Knuckles and Chris were behind her, watching me with a mixture of confusion and worry.

I decided to answer her question. "No, I don't remember what happened. All I can remember is that we were fighting those Metarex, and then Cosmo came out with the emeralds, and you were hit... And then nothing. I woke up on the ground here wondering how I got back to the planet, and when I tried to remember what happened, all I could remember was that you were hurt." I decided to leave out the part about everything hurting, because then she'd just worry.

"That's strange, I don't know why you don't remember anything, but guys, I think I figured out why he's back to normal." Tails informed us all.

"Wait, what do you mean, 'back to normal'?" I asked. Now I was really worried, what had happened?

"Well, umm..." Tails looked nervous. "We'll explain later Sonic. But I just remembered, Sonic, you know how when Gaia was released and you would turn into a Werehog every night, but then go back to normal during the day?" He asked me.

"Ummm, yeah, why?" I answered, wondering where this was going.

"Oh, I get it now! The sun came up, that's why he went back to normal!" Amy said, then a sudden realisation hit her. "But that means its not over..." She looked afraid.

"_What_ isn't over?" I asked, frustrated that they wouldn't tell me anything.

Tails and Chris looked at each other.

"We'll tell you when we get back to the typhoon, okay?" Tails reassured me.

"Whatever, fine. Lets hurry then." I answered.

"Sure thing, Sonic. But I can only get four seats in the X-tornado..." Tails pondered.

"That's fine, I'll just ride on the wing like I usually do." I responded, impatient to hear what happened.

"Okay, in that case, we should get going." Tails said, and walked towards the airplane. Everybody hopped in, and I jumped onto the wing.

"Start her up Tails!" I shouted, happy to just get moving so that I could hopefully clear my head a little.

The fox started the engine, and we took off. I loved the feel of the wind in my quills, and I leaned into it and closed my eyes. I had to stop leaning forward pretty soon, and just hold on tight to the plane, because we started to go almost straight up, and I couldn't keep my balance while leaning into the wind.

It was a pretty quick flight, and we soon made it up to the typhoon. We landed in the cargo bay where Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese were waiting for us. As I hopped off of the wing, Cream came running to me.

"Mister Sonic! You're back!" She exclaimed as she hugged me.

I hugged her back. "Yeah, I'm here, how are you?" I asked.

She didn't let go of me, she hugged me tighter, like she usually does when she needs comfort. "Oh, mister Sonic, I was so scared! There were two of you, and then mister Shadow got hurt, and you fell, and then everybody left except Cheese and Cosmo. But now you're back! So everything is gonna be okay, right?" She asked.

I was seriously confused now. Two of me? Shadow got hurt? It could wait until later though. Right now I needed to let Cream know that everything was gonna work out alright.

"Of course everything is gonna be okay, you're forgetting something very important." I told her, then kneeled down and put my hands on her shoulders. "What's my name?" I asked her.

She looked confused, but answered my question. "Ummm, you're Sonic the hedgehog?"

"That's right." I said. "Everything is going to be okay as long as I'm around. Don't you worry, Cream. I promised your mom that I'd keep you safe, and I have every intention of fulfilling that promise." I reassured her.

She smiled really big. "Okay Mister Sonic! I trust you!" She told me, and hugged me again.

Amy tapped me on the shoulder. "Come on Sonic, we're going to the control room." She told me.

"Okay." I said, and then stood up. I held my hand out for Cream to hold it and she took it without pause. "C'mon Cream, I have a lot of catching up to do." I told her and she giggled at my pun. We started to walk towards the control centre of the Blue Typhoon.

Halfway there, we passed by the clinic, and the lights were on. I stopped in front of the door.

"Hey Cream, when you said that Shadow was hurt, did you bring him here?" I asked.

"Yeah, he was hurt pretty bad, and we were the only ones with a hospital. Hey look, he's awake!" She let go of my hand and pushed open the door.

Shadow was sitting on the bed with his legs dangling off the side. He was facing Rouge, who was standing next to the bed. Shadow had white bandages wrapped around his head, chest, and right leg. His forehead looked pretty bad as well, like it was kinda flat. Rouge was watching him with a sort of protective expression, which I found kinda weird.

Shadow saw me in the doorway and half-smiled. I did a double take. Shadow? Smiling?

"Hey, actually, I was just about to go looking for you. How are you doing?" Shadow asked me, which I also found odd for him, usually he was the kind of person who doesn't care about anybody, and keeps to himself.

"Umm, I'm fine, how are you?" I responded, staring at his forehead.

"A little tired, and kinda beat up, thanks to you." He said this off-handedly, like his injuries were nothing to worry about. That's not what got me though.

"Wait, _I_ did this to you?" I asked.

"Don't you remember?" He responded.

"No, I don't remember anything after Cosmo gave me the Chaos emeralds. It's all just a big blank, its really frustrating, and no one will tell me what happened! And now I find out that I did... _This_." I gestured to him. "To you."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure your friends will tell you what happened. Just be patient." He responded wisely.

I remembered that he has amnesia and immediately felt bad about complaining that I couldn't remember to him. The difference was that I had friends who had promised to explain everything to me. He didn't. No one could tell him what his life had been like. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have my whole life like this past day. It was too hard. It must really suck to be Shadow.

"Dude, sor-" I started to say.

"Don't be." He interrupted. "I've actually started to remember a lot since you gave me that blow to the head. I've remembered more about my life in the past day than I have in the entire time since I've woken up."

That must be why he's so much more easy-going, he's remembering stuff about his past. "That's great! Nice to know _something_ good has come out of all this. I should go, I'm gonna try to get _my_ memories back now." I grinned, relieved that he wasn't mad at me for busting his head.

"Go on, I wish you luck." He responded sincerely.

"Thanks, I'll see you later." I told him, and started to walk out the door.

"Hey, wait. I just decided that I want to come too." He told me. "I could do with a walk."

"Shadow..." Rouge warned.

"She's right mister Shadow," Cream said, "you're in no condition-"

Shadow cut her off. "Last I checked, it was my skull that was broken, not my legs." He stated.

"But your foot..." She tried again.

"Has been put back in place, now if there are any more objections, keep them to yourselves. I'm going." He finished her sentence and jumped down off the bed, he winced a little, but recomposed himself quickly.

I smiled and shook my head, he was just as stubborn as always. In that way, he was a lot like me, we both never gave up, and never backed down. He was having a little trouble walking on his right foot, so I started to go over to help him, but Rouge beat me to it. He brushed her off though, and went over to his shoes to quickly slip them on. I guessed his foot must have just been a bit stiff, because he quickly lost his limp, and was walking normally by the time he made it to the door.

Rouge was still behind him shaking her head incredulously at his stubbornness. He looked back at her and then turned to me with a mischievous grin.

"Race you to the control room." He whispered so she couldn't hear.

"You sure that's a good idea?" I asked just as quietly.

"C'mon, you too?" He pouted.

I looked at him, if he was anything like me, he probably just wanted to prove to himself that he could do what he wanted. "Fine, you're on." I accepted his challenge.

"Yeah!" He grinned, and began to run. "I'll be waiting!" He shouted back to me.

"Hey! No fair!" I yelled back, and took off after him to catch up.

"_SHADOW!_" Rouge thundered behind us. Shadow started laughing.

He was pretty fast, but I managed to start gaining on him. Halfway down the corridor I had nearly caught up with him. By the time we got to the control room, we were neck-and-neck. I managed to tie with him at the door.

Even though it hadn't been very far, we were both pretty tired out. Me because of my aching abdomen, and Shadow from his multiple injuries. Shadow offered his hand to me like he wanted a handshake.

"Looks like its a draw, good running." He acknowledged.

I took his hand and shook it. "The same to you." I told him.

Just then Rouge came flying in with Amy and the rest of our friends running behind her. Both of them looked pretty upset with us.

"_Shadow..._" Rouge growled at the same time as Amy said

"_Sonic..._" She snarled. Both of us quickly put our hands behind our backs and attempted to look innocent.

"I can't believe you would take off like that with your injuries!" Rouge lectured.

"I can't believe that you would encourage him, Sonic! I'm disappointed in you." Amy scolded.

"Why, Shadow, why do you do this to me? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Rouge asked like she had all but given up on making sense of Shadow.

"Sonic, are you _trying_ to get Shadow injured? What is going through your head?" Amy accused me.

We took it like men. Meaning we gave our respective girl the most cute apologetic look we could manage until they both rolled their eyes and forgave us. Unfortunately Rouge and Amy were harder to crack than we thought, and weren't even fazed. They were still lecturing us when Shadow stepped over to Rouge.

"I'm sorry I scared you." He apologised, putting a hand on her shoulder. She pretty much melted right there.

"I'm just glad you're okay." She rolled her eyes and hugged him. He winced from his chest, but awkwardly hugged her back, knowing it was the only way she'd let him off the hook. I figured if it worked for Shadow, it would probably work for me.

I put my arm around Amy. "I'm sorry too Ames." I said, as sincerely as possible.

"Oh no you don't, that may work for Rouge, but you're still in trouble with me. And don't call me Ames." She said, shrugging my arm off.

"But _Amy_, you know I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and look, Shadow's fine." I said, trying to sound genuinely hurt and giving her my best puppy-dog face. That's all it took.

"Oh fine, I forgive you." She said, and hugged me too.

Shadow winked at me from behind Rouge. "Well, I wouldn't say that I'm _fine_, but you didn't hurt me any more..." Shadow teased.

"Oh please, you're the one who wanted to race. Don't even give me that." I taunted back.

Both girls let go and looked at each other. "_Boys..._" They said at the same time and rolled their eyes. When they turned their backs, me and Shadow bro-fisted. Knuckles saw this and snickered.

"Hey, you weren't going as fast as usual." Shadow stated. "I have an excuse for going slow, what's yours? And don't say you were going easy on me, because I know you weren't." He demanded.

I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'm not sure why, but since I woke up, my chest has been hurting a lot. It feels like I've been hit by a truck." I told him, and Knuckles overheard me.

He put his hand behind his head to scratch his neck guiltily. "Sorry, that's probably my fault. I kinda socked you in the gut when you attacked us." He told me.

"Wait, what?" Both me and Shadow asked at once. I looked over at Shadow confusedly.

"Why are _you_ confused?" I asked him.

"They told me that you'd just passed out after we got you in Eggman's trap. As far as I knew, you had just been out cold for the past few hours, why would you have attacked them? And why would Knuckles have hit you?" He told me.

"That can't be right, when I woke up, I was back on Mobius. And as far as I could tell, I hadn't even been out very long..." I trailed off, and we both looked to the group of people watching our conversation. Rouge was attempting to hide behind Amy.

Now it was Shadow's turn to be upset with Rouge.

"Rouge, explain." He demanded.

She stepped out from behind Amy. "Well, Shadow, I didn't want to stress you out anymore than you were, so... I kinda lied to you. But don't get angry! The truth is, I wasn't exactly sure what had happened to Sonic myself, so I just didn't know how to explain it to you. And in your condition-" she began to say, but was cut off.

Until that point, Shadow had been trying to keep his cool. But hearing her judge his condition again just crossed a line for him.

"How many times do I need to tell you people!?" He shouted, obviously angry. "I'm tougher than you all seem to think! I've survived through more than this! I'm not called the Ultimate Life-form for no reason! Quit thinking you know what's best for me! I can take care of myself!" He finished indignantly, then crossed his arms and turned his back on the rest of us.

I didn't know how to react to this. On one hand, I knew exactly how Shadow felt, people were always underestimating me, and trying to do 'what they thought was best', which really irritated me most of the time and usually ended up getting in my way. However, I also thought Shadow had overreacted a bit, but that just might be because I was so used to him generally not saying anything.

Everyone else in the room was dead silent, looking at either Rouge or Shadow. Rouge looked like she had been slapped in the face, and she was looking at Shadow's back guiltily. I decided to take Shadow's side on this. He's always so alone in everything, he really needed someone on his side. I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. He involuntarily tensed at my touch.

"I know exactly how you feel. Having people underestimate you stinks." I told him, letting him know that I had his back. His shoulder relaxed a little.

"Nice to know at least _one_ person gets it." He said gratefully, and turned around to face the rest of us.

There was a kind of awkward silence while Shadow glared at Rouge, and she looked at the ground in shame. I decided to break it.

I clapped my hands together to get everybody's attention. "Well now, if we're all done lying, I'd like to know exactly what happened." I stated loudly.

"Sonic's right." Tails agreed. "We should get the whole story laid out so that there's no confusion anymore. But where do we start?" He asked.

"Start with what happened after Cosmo tossed me the emeralds and Amy was hit, that's where my memory blank starts." I decided, and Tails nodded.

"Okay Sonic, I think Knuckles should tell that part, he was right next to you. Just let me connect with Eggman again, he probably has some video of it as well." Tails told me cautiously as he walked over to his computer.

"_What?!_" I yelled in surprise. "Since when do we work with Eggman?!"

The kitsune looked ashamed for a moment, then shook himself and looked at me defiantly. "Sonic, I know you don't like Eggman much, but we needed his help when you were out of control. It's only because of him that you're here and back to normal right now." He told me, then stared me down like he expected me to argue with him.

I was taken aback, usually Tails was so quiet and agreeable, I guess a lot had changed in the past day. "Saying that I don't like Eggman much is an understatement." I told him, making Knuckles snicker again. "But, if you trust him, then I'll just deal with it. I believe in your judgement, Tails." I let him know, swallowing my pride.

Tails looked really surprised, he must have been expecting me to put up a fight about having to work with the doctor. He then realised that I had just complimented his judgement, and he perked up, happy that I trusted him.

"Ummm, okay. I mean, good. Eggman's been a big help." He said, kind of confused, but pleased at the same time. He walked over to the control board almost like he half-expected me to stop him.

I realised that pretty much everybody was staring at me.

"_What?_" I asked exasperatedly.

"Sonic, you _hate_ Eggman, and your just gonna work with him now?" Knuckles inquired.

"Hey, if Tails trusts him, then I trust him." I stated stubbornly, daring any of them to contradict me. Nobody did.

Tails typed something into his keyboard, and soon Eggman's face filled the screen.

"Hello again, Tails." The doctor greeted my friend, then he saw me. "My my my, hello Sonic! I see you're back to normal. It looks like you were right, Tails." He congratulated the fox.

"Eggman," I acknowledged the doctor with a nod.

"And Shadow! You look much better than when I last saw you. How are you feeling?" He asked the ebony hedgehog to my right.

"Just fine." Shadow responded curtly, still upset about Rouge's lie.

"That's wonderful! Now Tails, I see that you've got Sonic back, and he's not destroying anything anymore, so what do you want me for?" He asked.

"Well, ummm, you see..." Tails looked to me like he didn't know what to say.

I stepped forward to explain for him. "I seem to have amnesia as to what exactly happened this past day. Tails wanted to ask you to help me remember what happened. He was wondering if you had any video footage or anything." I informed the doctor.

"You don't remember any of it?" The doctor exclaimed, obviously surprised.

"Isn't that what I just told you?" I said aggressively, then remembered that I was supposed to be working with him. "I mean, no, I don't remember anything after Cosmo tossed the emeralds to me." I clarified as civilly as I could.

Eggman looked a bit amused. "Of course I have footage, do you think I would have ambushed you without video taping every second of it?" He asked. "If you'd like, I would be more than willing to just let you watch all the tapes. And I'm sure the news reports would be helpful as well." He said, obviously enjoying this, though I wasn't sure why.

"That way, you can see it for yourself, instead of having us explain everything to you." Chris mused out loud.

"Yeah, that would be great." I told him, forcing myself to smile.

Tails cleared his throat. "Maybe you shouldn't watch those tapes alone... I'll watch them with you, if that's okay." He told me. I was kind of worried about exactly what I would see, so I agreed by nodding my head.

"I'm coming too." Shadow said. It wasn't a request. "I want to see what _really_ happened after he got caught." He finished, glaring pointedly at Rouge, who stared at her feet.

"Fine." I agreed. "Where can we watch them?" I asked, hoping that I didn't have to go to Eggman's ship.

"All the files are on my ship, so if you want to see them, you will have to come here." He informed us, and my heart sunk. I hated anything to do with that man, and now I had to go on _his_ ship? And watch _his_ computers? Oh well, at least I had Tails with me. And Shadow, I guess.

"Okay then, lets go guys." I said rather flatly. Tails looked at me sympathetically, he probably knew what I was thinking about.

Shadow led the way to the other ship. Rouge tried to go with him, but whenever she got close he would either speed up, or drop back so she couldn't walk next to him. Eventually she gave up and just went back to the rest of the group. We got to the cargo bay, where Eggman had already lined up his ship with ours so the three of us could board.

We were greeted by those three robots, Bocoe, Decoe, and... Bokkun, I think. They seemed pretty excited to take us to the room that the doctor had set up for us to watch the tapes in.

There was a lot of walking through confusing metal corridors, and then we finally made it to the room. Eggman was waiting for us there in his weird hover-chair thing.

The room was pretty simple. It was like a living room made of metal. The only non-metal thing in the room was the blue couch in the middle. There was a metal coffee table sort of thing next to the couch with some metal bowls full of food on them. I guess Eggman was hungry. Or maybe he was thinking we would be hungry?

The lights were dim, but everything kind of glared from them anyways. There was a screen on the far wall playing some video showing me bouncing around the whole ship taking out Metarex and missiles. The sound was muted.

"Welcome, Sonic. I hope you don't mind if I stay to watch as well, it is _my_ ship after all." The doctor greeted.

I clenched my teeth, but I didn't really have a choice, unless I thought Knuckles could give me more information then actually watching it.

"No worries Eggman, that's cool." I said, trying to sound like I was talking to just anyone. I couldn't keep myself from glaring at him the whole time though.

He knew he was making me uncomfortable, and that just made him grin wider to show more of his ugly teeth. "Perfect! Now lets get started, you all will sit on that couch. My apologies if its not very comfortable, it is quite old. You're free to the snacks if you like, but I'm not sure if you will have much of an appetite." He instructed us.

That got on my nerves. Despite all our differences, Eggman and I know each other pretty well, so we always know exactly how to make each other miserable, which is why we're enemies. If Eggman is suggesting that I might not have an appetite from these videos, then whatever I did must be pretty bad. I already know that Amy got hurt, I hurt Shadow, they trapped me, and I attacked my friends. What else could have possibly happened? How and why would I do any of those things?

"Mm-hmm" I mumbled, plopping myself down in the middle of the couch. Tails sat on my right side, and Shadow on my left. I didn't bother eating any of the food, if Eggman wasn't willing to eat it, then I wasn't either. Tails and Shadow must have had the same idea, because neither of them touched the food.

It didn't really matter because my eyes were glued to the screen. On the tape, Amy, Knuckles and I had just grouped together by the control room. Eggman turned the sound on, and we could hear the explosions and gunfire from the battle. It was weird seeing myself battling from where the bad guys were watching. I was moving almost too fast to see, all we could really see on the video was a blue flash that jumped from place to place inside our defensive perimeter. Every now and then I would stop long enough to be visible when I kicked a Metarex or jumped back from a solid spin dash. I looked pretty awesome.

From this angle, I could see that our group was making a lot of progress very quickly on the waves of robots. It hadn't felt that way when we were down there pushing them back, but I guess perspective is everything.

Eventually, there was a small commotion as Cosmo ran out with the emeralds. We couldn't hear what she said over the explosions and gunshots, but I remembered that she had told Knuckles to go help Tails, then tossed me the emeralds. I looked away for what came next. I didn't need to see Amy get hurt again. Strangely, I actually heard something happen, and I whipped my head back.

Amy was unconscious against the dome where she had been pushed back. What I was hearing was a scream. It hadn't come from her. It was me. I looked furious, and really frightening. I was floating, head thrown back in a roar of rage. The emeralds still surrounded me, but I wasn't turning super. At least not entirely.

I split down the middle, one half dark blue, almost black; and the other golden. It actually looked kind of cool. I looked around like I was surveying the damage. Then I looked to the still-attacking Metarex.

I flew back into the battle with amazing power. The robots didn't stand a chance. I blasted left and right, in front of and behind me too fast for any of them to put up a fight.

"Whoa... _Way_ past cool..." I said as I leaned forward.

But from that point on, everything went downhill.

**AN: Yeah, so there's just gonna be this kinda boring bit where Sonic catches up on all the naughty things he's been doing, but it will move on in the next chapter. This part is mostly to see his reaction to his not-so-completely-heroic behaviour. I promise the next chapter will be a bit longer so that there is some exciting stuff to make up for the boring part :)**

**If you have anything you'd like to say, I would be more than happy to read your comment, so tell me what you think. I still consider myself new at this, so any reviews are welcomed with open arms. Even hater reviews, I actually like those the best, cuz they tell me how people really think, and they're kind of fun to respond to, because I'm the kind of person who doesn't take any shit from anybody XD I'm the product of stubborn people and schools that fully support debate, I'm pretty sure I can take whatever the haters of the world wanna throw at me XD**

**I wanna know how many people picked up on the Shadow-Maria reference when Sonic woke up at the beginning of this chapter (he shouted 'Amy' too XD).**

**Okay guys, love to all! Have fantabulistic day! (My new favorite word: fantastic+fabulous+fantastic again! XD it says everything I ever need a word to say, it describes everything XD)**

**-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96**


	10. Chapter 10- Trust Issues

**AN: sorry, I had a bad case of writer's block on this chapter, but my friends helped me get past it. So my hiatus is over! I'm sparing you a long author's note because I feel bad for making you guys wait so long for this chapter. I promise it's a long chapter XD Happy April the first!**

Chapter 10: Cheese the Chao's POV

chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao. chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao CHAO CHAO chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao CHAO CHAO CHAO CHAO CHAO chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao CHAO CHAO CHAO chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao chao!  
**...**

...

...

...

...

...

...

APRIL FOOLS! Here's the real chapter :P

Chapter 10: Trust Issues

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Miles "Tails" Prower**

I came to watch with Sonic mostly for moral support. I knew he wasn't gonna like what he saw, so he needed a friend to be there for him. At first, he seemed really interested in how things were going. He even told us that he thought his split transformation was 'way past cool', Which he only says about things he really likes.

I guess he did have a reason to be proud, he was taking out enemy robots like they were nothing more than annoying bugs. It _did_ look pretty awesome.

But as the events unfolded on the screen, Sonic became less and less enthusiastic. First, when he started chasing the Metarex after they had already started fleeing, he leaned back, which is the body language for someone who doesn't want to be involved in what he is seeing. When he actually split into two Sonics, his eyes widened and he crossed his arms, which is mostly interpreted as shame or a self-protective gesture. I could tell he really didn't like the dark version of himself, because whenever he spoke, Sonic would look disgusted and ashamed. When his two halves started fighting, he visibly became alarmed. I could tell he had a lot of questions. But he just remained silent and kept watching.

The cameras switched to our group talking about what to do for a while, and at certain ideas, Sonic would nod his head in agreement or look horrified, like he knew it was a bad idea. When the idea to trap him in Eggman's machine came up, he didn't nod his head or look horrified. His expression told me that he didn't know what to think. He hadn't said anything since his comment about his split form. At the same time as the me on screen said it would probably work, he slowly started to nod his head. He seemed to have figured out what we meant about him turning back to normal. But that still didn't explain to him why he attacked us.

When we had decided on our plan of action and it came time to decide who would go, he looked really ashamed at the lot of us for leaving Shadow alone to fight him.

"Really? Not even Knuckles would help you?" He asked Shadow incredulously. The black hedgehog next to him shook his head sadly. It was then that I realised that I was not the only one watching Sonic's reaction to the video. Shadow and Doctor Eggman were paying just as close attention.

The camera angle switched again to show Shadow standing outside our ship thinking about how to lure Sonic to the trap. After a minute, Shadow pulled out his fake emerald. Sonic looked impressed at his preparedness. Then Rouge came on the intercom from Eggman's ship.

Sonic shook his head almost like he found it amusing. Shadow clenched his fists. I guess he was still touchy about Rouge for the time being.

The Shadow on screen tossed his emerald up and teleported as he caught it. The camera angle switched again to show the chase. The explosions had stopped, so we could hear everything Shadow taunted the Sonics with.

Sonic looked over at Shadow and raised one of his eyebrows questioningly. Shadow shrugged.

"Hey, I only said all that stuff to make you follow me." He explained, without a hint of remorse.

Sonic rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. He turned back to the chase on the screen. When it finally got to the part where his dark half managed to hit Shadow, he inhaled sharply.

The cameras switched to show the inside of the ship as Shadow crash-landed. Everyone in the room reacted differently when Shadow hit his head against the metal floor with a loud _CRACK_!

Eggman had already seen it and was prepared with his eyes closed and head down so he didn't have to watch it again. Shadow put his hand to his forehead tenderly, looking a bit concerned. I tensed up and clutched the couch while my tails fluttered nervously. Sonic's eyes widened in shock and he put his hand up to cover his face as he jerked his head away to the side. I saw a tear fall down his cheek before he quickly wiped his face and he forced himself to look back.

Shadow leaned forward, this was the part he had been waiting to see.

We all watched apprehensively as Rouge flew to Shadow's side and checked him over. Shadow was sitting with us, but ridiculously, I found myself hoping that Shadow was going to be okay. Shadow was glaring at Rouge resentfully, but when she had finished patching him up with her clothing leg and Amy's dress hem, she did something strange. After she had done all she could for him, she put her head in her hands and said something that made Shadow soften his gaze.

"Oh, Shadow, please be okay..." She whimpered, sounding like she was about to cry.

"Rouge..." He said softly, for once without any contempt.

On screen, Amy went over and put a hand on Rouge's shoulder, making her wipe off her tears and stand up to face the opening of the ship. Both Sonics landed dramatically, with twin looks of hatred on their features.

When they told Rouge to get out of their way, Sonic flinched and clenched his fists. He probably couldn't believe that he would attack an enemy that was already down. He must have been so ashamed.

When Rouge shouted that they would have to go through her if they wanted to get to Shadow, the ebony hedgehog looked at the ground ashamedly and gratefully. When the twin hedgehogs on the video laughed and agreed to her terms, Sonic sunk in his seat in shame and glared at himself on screen with hatred. I wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that he hadn't been in his right mind, but it wouldn't have mattered, he wouldn't have listened to me anyways.

Shadow was paying very close attention to the video now. When he saw Sonic's reaction to the double Sonics, he nudged the blue hedgehog; but Sonic didn't react, he just continued to stare sullenly at the events unfolding on screen. Shadow looked at Sonic a little worriedly, but then turned back to the screen because Rouge had just yelled 'now Eggman!'. The Sonics had just walked on the centre of the room. Before Rouge had finished yelling that, a machine had sprung up from the floor and trapped Sonic in an energy field. Other than a slight twitch of his ear, my friend didn't react, and he just continued to stare unresponsively at the screen.

Sonic remained like this for the rest of the video. He watched the video, but no matter what happened, his expression never changed,and he didn't move or show any hint of a reaction. It really wasn't like him, and even Shadow and doctor Eggman had stopped watching the tapes to look at Sonic with concern. _Eggman_ was worried. It was like Sonic was _looking_ at the screen, but he wasn't _seeing_ it.

When the last news report had played, showing the interview of two children who had run into 'the doomsday beast', the screen went dark and the lights turned back on. Nobody moved. Sonic was still looking at the screen, he hadn't moved an inch since he'd become unresponsive. That alone had me really worried. Sonic can never stay still for longer than a couple of minutes at a time, yet he had been frozen in place for over an hour now.

"...Sonic?" Eggman asked cautiously.

Sonic seemed to realise the video was no longer playing. He shook himself out of his daze. He looked around to see that we were all staring at him.

He put on a weak smile. "Well, I still don't remember any of that, but at least I know what happened, right?" His fake smile faltered for a second and I could see that he was really upset.

"Sonic, are you okay?" I asked my friend.

"Yeah, of 'course I'm fine, lets go meet up with the others." He lied and quickly changed the subject.

"Okay... Sure Sonic." I said, but this wasn't over. Sonic was definitely _not_ okay.

He got up. "C'mon guys... You too Eggman." He said, starting to walk out of the room.

Eggman looked surprised to be invited along, but obliged, hopping out of his hover chair-thing to follow his blue nemesis.

Shadow jogged to catch up to Sonic. "I need to go talk to Rouge, are you sure you're okay?" He asked him.

"Yeah, go on, I'm fine. Tell the others that we're coming, and meet us in the cafeteria." He said, faking another smile. Shadow nodded and ran ahead.

We'd skipped over a lot of the uneventful bits in the video, but it had still taken up most of the day. My watch said it was 3:00 pm. We followed Sonic to our ship, somehow, he still remembered the way out even though it had been a long time ago, and even I had no idea which way we were supposed to go.

Soon, we made it to the cargo bay. Knuckles was back with the master emerald, but his efforts seemed pretty half-hearted. When we came in he jogged over to meet Sonic. He appeared not to notice how upset Sonic was.

"Hey man, why's Eggman here?" He asked.

"I need to talk to everybody, including him." Sonic replied, not looking at Knuckles or slowing down for him either.

That's when Knuckles noticed that something was up. "Sonic, are you okay?" He worried, trying to keep up with his friend.

"Just fine." Sonic replied, then continued before Knuckles could say anything. "Do you think you could help me get everyone to the cafeteria?"

"Uhh, sure man. No problem, I know where they are, we'll meet you there." Knuckles didn't seem convinced that Sonic was okay, but he ran off to go get everyone anyways.

"Looks like we'll just go straight there then." Sonic mused out loud, changing his route to head towards the cafeteria. We were all silent the whole way there.

When we got there, we found Shadow and Rouge sitting by themselves at the end of the one big table. They had a glass of water each, but they hadn't touched them. They were having a quiet conversation when we walked in, but they broke off when they saw us. We all went and sat down. Well, me and Sonic sat down, Eggman was too big for the chairs, so he stayed standing in the corner. There was kind of an awkward moment of silence before Rouge broke it.

"So, how are you doin' big blue?" Rouge asked, leaning forward interestedly.

"Huh?" Sonic had been staring at the wall looking to be pretty deep in thought, and hadn't been paying attention.

"Well, you've obviously got _something_ on your mind, I wanted to know if you were okay." Rouge explained. "But if you don't want to tell me, its okay, I won't intrude." She quickly added, looking at Shadow.

Sonic almost looked like he wanted to say something, but at the last minute hardened his expression. "I told you guys, I'm fine." He said expressionlessly, leaning back and crossing his arms. He leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling, going back to thinking again.

"Sonic..." I said, trying to get him to talk to us.

"No offence Tails, but back off." Rouge warned me, trying to sound nice about it. "If Sonic doesn't want to tell us, he doesn't have to."

I sighed and nodded, leaning back in my chair. Sonic turned his attention to Rouge and opened his mouth to say something. But just then Knuckles and the rest of our friends ran into the room. Amy ran straight over to Sonic. He put his fake smile back on and stood up to give everyone else room to sit. With the extra two people at the table, there was just enough chairs for everyone but Sonic (and Eggman). Everyone immediately found a place to sit and without saying a word, looked at Sonic expectantly.

He cleared his throat. "Okay, now that I've seen what happened, its obvious something needs to be done." He started, seeming slightly uncomfortable with everyone (including Eggman and Shadow) staring at him.

"About what? You're back to normal now, right? It's over." Chris interrupted, looking confused.

"Not exactly, last time I turned into that creature you saw, it didn't just go away after one night. I turn into it every night. And there's the whole issue with Gaia having been released... No, it's not over yet Chris." Sonic explained.

"Every night? But then..." Chris looked worried.

"Yeah, from sundown to sun up. Except last time I was in control of myself. This time I'm not." Sonic paused and took a deep breath before rushing through his next explanation. "Which is why I need to talk to all of you. You need to be ready to put me in a cage, and keep me there, no matter how I act, or what I do."

Immediately, nearly everybody at the table stood up to protest. That included me. It was an overlap of shouting and general displeasure, and nobody's voice was discernible in the din. Shadow, Rouge, and Eggman were the only people not trying to make their voices heard. Sonic just took it for a minute, waiting for us to calm down, but when there was no sign of us stopping, he spoke up.

"Hey, look at it this way. Either I have you guys contain me, or I can have Eggman over there keep me in a cage. I'm sure he wouldn't object. Either way, I am not hurting or breaking _anything_ else." He stared us all down stubbornly.

The room was silent. Sonic kept glaring at us all like we were disobedient students. I really didn't want to put Sonic in a cage. He's my best friend, and the only person who stood up for me when I was bullied. We've been together since the day we met, and I know him better than anybody. He hates being trapped, and for him to voluntarily ask us to contain him, he'd have to be terrified of what he might do otherwise.

I wanted to scream and shout and tell him that I didn't care what he might do or what he says, I didn't care because he's my best friend, and I just couldn't do that. I can't put Sonic in a cage, I just can't. But I didn't say anything. Because Sonic is my best friend and I recognised his look. He was not going to back down on this, no matter what. And I really didn't want to leave him in the hands of Eggman.

I got up and ran over to hug my friend. "Okay Sonic, I'll do what you say. But only because I know you really will go to Eggman if we don't do it." Sonic relaxed and hugged me back.

"Thanks buddy, I knew I could count on you." He said as he lifted me off my feet and hugged me tight. It felt like the good old days again, before we met Amy, Knuckles and the rest of them. Back when it was just me and Sonic against the world. Sonic put me down after a second and looked back at the rest of our friends.

"Does anybody else have any objections? Because I need to know that I can trust all of you to not let me out." He asserted calmly.

Our friends looked around at each other. Amy and Knuckles in particular seemed to be reading each other's minds. Knuckles got up.

"I'm pretty sure I speak for all of us when I say that we can't put you in a cage. It goes against everything we know about you and being your friend." I felt Sonic's grip on my shoulder tighten in alarm, and he stiffened up again. Knuckles seemed to notice, so he hurriedly continued. "But also, being your friends, we know when you won't take no for an answer. We won't put you in a cage Sonic, but we won't stop you either, and we certainly won't let you out if that's what you need from us." Behind him Amy, Chris, Cream, and Cosmo nodded their heads in agreement.

Sonic relaxed again and half-smiled. I guess it was better than that horrible fake smile he'd had before. "Thank you," he sighed, "that's all I needed to hear." he paused, and turned to the large human standing in the corner. "Now Eggman, down to the reason that I asked you to come. We've used up most if the day already, I'd say we have about two to three hours before sunset. From those reports, it seems that we'll need a pretty durable container to hold me. You said you were working on a cage, is it done?"

The doctor nodded. "I still have to work on the hinges so that you can't break them open, but I believe that it will be able to hold you just fine. If I had more time it wouldn't need hinges..."

"Good. If they're okay with it, Tails and Chris can help you finish it, and we'll need to bring it to our ship. You will let us use it, right?"

"I would more than appreciate the assistance, and of course you may have my cage. It was built to hold you, willing or not, and it would be a shame if I wasted all that effort and it was never put to use."

Then Sonic and Eggman looked at me expectantly. I had no idea what it was about. When they just kept staring I got a little weirded out. "_What_?" I asked.

"I thought you were paying attention, Tails. Are you willing to help Eggman out or not? We _are_ a little short on time." Sonic explained somewhat impatiently and a little disappointedly.

"Oh, right. Sure, I'll help." I flustered, embarrassed.

"Thank you," the doctor nodded his head gratefully, then turned towards the only other human in the room, "how about you Chris? Are you willing to help? The more geniuses working on it, the stronger it will be."

Chris shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but there is no way that I can take part in building a cage for Sonic. I'm sorry, I just can't." He looked away.

"That's fine Chris," Eggman conceded with a hint of sympathy, "Tails and I should be more than enough to finish the _containment unit_ in time." He deliberately avoided the word cage.

Sonic sighed and rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter what you call it Egghead, it's still a cage." Oddly, Eggman smiled when Sonic teased him. I guess even the doctor was happy that Sonic was sounding a bit more back to normal.

Sonic turned in my direction. "Thanks for offering to help him Tails, you two should get going though, we only have a few hours before sundown."

I checked my watch, he was right, sunset is at 5:48, and it's already 3:30.

I nodded to Sonic before walking over to Eggman. "Lead the way, doctor." I invited, gesturing in the direction of the door.

"But of course, Tails" Eggman agreed and got up to walk back to his ship.

And I followed my greatest enemy to his ship so that I could help him build a cage for my best friend. Yep, just another _normal_ day for the heroes of Mobius.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Knuckles the Echidna**

I watched Eggman lead Tails away with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Tails is Sonic's closest friend, and is probably the only one of us who could make Sonic see sense and regain faith in himself. On the other hand, the kit was siding _with_ Sonic and his _insane_ decision to have himself locked up. I know I said that I won't interfere, but I can't stand by and just watch my friend and leader beat himself up over a few mistakes he made because he wasn't in control of himself.

After Tails and Eggman left, there was a kind of uncomfortable silence while most of us looked at Sonic, and he remained standing awkwardly at the head of the table, behind Tails' empty seat. This lasted for about thirty seconds before I got fed up with it.

"Well, sit down then. And explain to us the _real_ reason that you want to be put in a cage." I demanded, not giving him any room to argue with my glare.

Sonic sighed heavily and sat down at Tails' spot. Everyone but Shadow leaned in to hear what Sonic had to say. The blue hedgehog looked unusually uncomfortable under all our gazes, he usually loved attention of any kind, and looking like he wished he could turn invisible like Espio is really not like him.

"Knuckles, I don't _want_ to be put in a cage, but I _need_ to be put in one. You've seen what I've done, I can't be trusted." Sonic looked pretty depressed, like it was hard to say, but he was resigned to the idea that it had to be done. I felt bad for my friend.

"C'mon Sonic, that's not true. It wasn't _that_ bad..." I coaxed. Shadow snorted from the other end of the table. I turned around to glare at him, only to find him smirking back at me. Sonic paid no attention.

"I know you guys don't like it, but it _is_ true. It's bad enough that my stupidity got Amy hurt, but then I couldn't control myself and my dark side got loose! I attacked a fleeing enemy, I almost blew us all up, I nearly killed Shadow, _I scared Cream!_ And when you all tried to help, I attacked you! I-I..." Sonic put his head in his hands and couldn't continue.

There was a long silence while most of us pitied Sonic's situation. I had no idea of what to say. Here was my best friend, probably the only person in the universe who I would follow into a fight, and he suddenly hated himself. That is just so _un-Sonic_. I could hardly recognise the blue hedgehog in front of me. What happened to the confident, outgoing, completely crazy, funny, 'I'm gonna take a run around the planet a few times' Sonic that I'd come to know and respect over these past few years? Who is this scared, sad, and angry hedgehog in front of me?

Suddenly, Shadow stood up and walked around the table to stand in front of Sonic. The dark one put a comforting hand on the blue one's shoulder. Sonic looked up, surprised to see Shadow. There were tears running down his face.

"I-I'm sorry, Sha-" Sonic started to apologise, but was cut off.

_SMACK_! Shadow backhanded Sonic across the face.

"HEY!" I stood up indignantly, along with Amy and Chris. Cream and Cosmo whimpered as Sonic's head snapped to the side from the force of Shadow's slap. I started to storm my way over to Shadow, but Sonic held up a hand to stop me.

"No Knuckles, I needed that." His eyes were closed and he was rubbing his red cheek, but he looked much more calm than before, and looked more like himself than before as well. After a second, he opened his eyes and glared at Shadow. Then he grinned like the annoying idiot he is, and spread his arms wide, exposing his chest. "Is that all, Shadow? I'd image you're more angry with me than just that."

Shadow smirked, aware of the challenge. He looked like he was going to hold himself back, but as soon as Sonic started to relax, Shadow struck. He swiftly jabbed Sonic in the gut, causing the blue hedgehog to double over and make a coughing sound.

"_That_ is for thinking you could almost kill me." He swept his leg under Sonic's legs, causing my friend to fall over. "_That_ is for nearly blowing all of us up." He waited for Sonic to stand back up. Most of us were frozen in shock. Sonic wasn't even fighting back, he was just taking it all with an expression of acceptance on his face. When he finally stood up, Shadow slapped him again, this time on the other cheek. "_That_ is for giving up." Sonic rubbed his cheek, wary of another attack as Shadow advanced again.

Then the dark hedgehog did something none of us expected. He walked up to the blue one and wrapped his arms around him in an embrace. Sonic jerked, but did not pull away. It didn't last long, Shadow was not one for affection. He pulled away, leaving his hands on the blue hedgehog's shoulders. "_That_ was because you needed it." Looking at the two of them at that moment, I could almost believe that they were brothers.

Sonic looked gratefully at the older hedgehog. He then grinned, just like his old self. "So does that mean you're done with beating me up?"

Shadow shook his head in disbelief at the younger hedgehog's ability to brush the tense moment off. "I suppose, for the moment. Don't make me do that again." The ebony hedgehog took his hands off the blue one's shoulders and walked back to his spot at the table. Those of us who were standing slowly sat down. Personally, I was just happy that Sonic was back to himself. I couldn't stand seeing him being so hard on himself like that.

Sonic sat down, with a goofy smile on his face that told me that any doubts he had about himself had been crushed. "All right guys, I think I have a compromise for you."

I was skeptical. Was he talking about the cage? Is he going to decide not to use it? "So, lets hear it!" I replied, hoping he was going to drop the cage idea.

"Unfortunately, I'm still going to need the cage." It's like he read my thoughts. "But, I want you guys to release me if I'm still myself. Now that I thought about it, thanks to Shadow, I may not be out of control when I change. Changing back and being normal today could have ended it. There is still a chance that my dark half _could_ just be resting during the day, and I _will_ go crazy as soon as I transform. I really don't want to cause any more damage, so that's why I want to be in the cage, just in case. But if I'm normal, or at least, not dark, you can let me out. In fact, I really want you to let me out, because I _hate_ being locked up. So, is it a deal?"

I nodded along with my friends. At least he wasn't acting like he wanted to be caged up anymore. And I could understand not wanting to hurt anybody, that made sense.

Chris spoke up. "But how will we know that you're yourself?"

"Hmmm... Good point Chris, I didn't think about that. Maybe a password or something? But I don't know if my dark side can remember that or not. Plus I'm not that great at remembering stuff either."

Amy snapped her fingers and stood up. "When you were a dark Werehog, you couldn't talk! That's how we'll know! If you can talk, then you're normal, if you can't, then we have to keep the cage closed." She looked really sad. "Oh Sonic, if you have to stay in the cage, I'll stay with you _all_ night! I'll make sure you aren't lonely!" She ran over to hug him. He looked kind of surprised, but accepted the embrace.

"Uh, thanks Amy, you really don't have to do that. You need your sleep."

"I don't mind Sonic, maybe I can try to calm you down! It worked own on the planet, and you were _so_ cute, well, before you found out you couldn't talk and went crazy again!" She grinned like it was no big deal.

I cleared my throat. "So... If you talk, we'll let you out, right?"

Sonic was still blushing from Amy calling him cute. What a dope. "Oh, right. Yeah, that should work. I could talk when I was normal, so if I can't when I'm dark, then that will do."

Tails came running back into the room, surprising all of us. "Sonic! The cage is done, do you wanna test it? We also need some help getting it to our ship, cuz it's pretty heavy."

Sonic grinned at his friend. "Sure thing Tails! Knuckles, Amy, can you two come with me? The rest of you can come too, if you want to." Tails seemed surprised to see his friend in such a good mood, but didn't question it.

"Yeah, I'm coming." I asserted, standing up.

"Me too!" Amy jumped up and ran to open the door.

"Sorry Blue, but I'm gonna sit this one out. And Shadow's staying with me." Rouge called, making Shadow sit back down.

The dark hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"I want to come too, mister Sonic!" Cream ran up to us, grabbing Sonic's hand. Her Chao followed behind her, accidentally running into her in its haste to keep up.

"I would also like to join you." Cosmo shyly got up from her chair to follow Tails out the door.

Everyone had made their choice, so we all followed Tails back over to Eggman's ship, minus Shadow and Rouge.

Tails seemed pretty excited to show us what he and doctor Eggman had been up to. He switched between running and flying the whole way, all of us had the run to keep up. Cream had some trouble keeping up with the rest, so Sonic picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. She loved it, and so did Cheese.

We finally made it to the right room, and Sonic ran in first.

"Whoa... Crazy..." Sonic was in total awe of whatever he saw in the room, so naturally, the rest of us immediately wanted to get a look at it.

What I saw when I got into the room was a not just a cage. It filled up half the room, and looked more like a huge clear box rather than a barred cage. There were thin metal wires running through the clear material, and I didn't notice them at first. There was a huge door that even Eggman could walk through without having to duck his head. There didn't seem to be any hinges on it, and I wasn't sure how it opened because there were no handles either. There was even a bed sort of thing inside, as well as a few barred windows along the sides most likely for air, but possibly for communication. The whole thing looked more like a room than a cage, and I wondered exactly what Eggman had been planning to use this cage for, and how long. It was not at all what I had been expecting, and I felt my jaw drop at the sight of something so crazy and intimidating.

"TA-DA!" Eggman exclaimed, walking out from behind the 'cage' he had taken his red coat off, and had rolled his sleeves up to work on the box. He looked way less evil at the moment, more like a mechanic than a mad scientist. He was grinning proudly at his huge contraption, and seemed pleased with our impressed expressions.

Sonic quickly got over his initial shock. "Wait, this is the cage? I was expecting something... More, cage-like. Is this made of glass? How's that supposed to contain me? How do you open the door? By the way, this looks awesome."

Most of us were amused with Sonic's enthusiasm. Eggman seems pleasantly surprised.

"Well, Sonic, I'm glad you like it. Yes, it is a cage, and I am 100 percent sure that it can withstand any attack you throw at it. The door opens when given the correct voice pattern and password. At the moment, only Tails and my own voice can open it. The door opens pneumatically, it seals itself completely when locked, and it cannot be forced open in any way. That was Tails' idea. And if you don't mind me asking a question, why the sudden change in mood?"

Sonic whistled. "You sure it won't break? I'm gonna have to test that out." He then smiled cheerfully. "And as to your question doctor, the answer is Shadow."

Eggman looked a bit taken aback. "Wait, did I hear you correctly? Shadow cheered you up? As in, Shadow the hedgehog, the Ultimate Life Form? The one that never smiles?"

Sonic, Amy, and I laughed at Eggman's disbelief. I decided to answer. "Yup. That Shadow. You know any others?" That sent Amy and Sonic into another round of laughter.

Eggman just shook his head, confused. "Well then, if you three are done not making sense, then maybe you should test out the cage to settle your doubts about how sturdy it is. I am willing to bet that none of you will be able to make even a small crack." He grinned again, and his glasses flashed mischievously.

We stopped laughing, and Sonic waved Amy and I over.

"All right guys, so here's the plan, I want to make sure that this thing is as strong as possible, so Amy, you use your hammer to attack the edges, try to make the seams come undone. Knuckles, use your fists to pound on the glass as hard as you can, don't hold back, even a little bit. I'm going to try spin dashing it multiple times from different angles, that will possibly shake it apart. You guys got it?" Sonic looked at us expectantly.

Amy and I nodded our heads, and we got into position while Sonic backed up to take a running leap at it.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog**

Wow, what a day. First I wake up in some forest on Mobius, now this. Eggman's really outdone himself on this one, but I still can't really see how this clear material is going to hold me back, it looks too much like glass. Amy and Knuckles got where I told them to go, and I backed myself up against the wall, trying to give myself as much space to build up momentum as possible.

I held back for a second, positioning myself so that I could use the wall to push myself off before giving my friends the thumbs up. I really hope this cage is tougher than it looks. "All right! Lets do it!" I yelled, pushing off from the wall with as much force as I could.

Amy swung her hammer as hard as she could at the edge of the box, and Knuckles unleashed a full-force punch on the wall of the box. I shut my eyes as I began my spin, rocketing towards the cage at about eighty miles per hour. I wish I was going faster, but I didn't have much space to work with.

I hit the box with a lot of force, definitely enough to smash any Badnik to bits, but all I heard was a dull thunk as I made contact. Unfazed, I pushed off with my feet to angle upwards and hit the box again.

I must have smashed into the thing at least a dozen times on each side, but the cage was way tougher than it looked. Eventually, I started to get a bit dizzy from all the spinning and crashing, so I stopped attacking it and landed on top of the box. Knuckles was still pounding away on his side of the box, landing punch after punch, not letting up, and not getting anywhere. Amy was attacking the seam of the box with as much power as she could get with her Piko-Piko. The bolts hadn't loosened at all, and I couldn't tell that it had even been attacked. Both of my friends looked really frustrated with the cage, and neither of them were putting a dent in it. My head hurt from a couple of poorly aimed spin-dashes, so I jumped down from the box rather than spin or flip like I usually do. Amy and Knuckles looked up from their tasks, and ceased attacking when I put my hand up. Knuckles looked to see if he'd made any damage to the box, there wasn't even a scratch.

"Geez, Eggman, what's that thing made out of?" I rubbed my head where I had smacked it into the cage. Three times.

Eggman grinned proudly. "Just a material that I've been experimenting with, it is a mixture of what the Metarex are made from, as well as few extremely hard substances that I have found in different places in the universe. I managed to make a clear variation, and then I reinforced it with the stronger opaque wires running through it. No one alive could break through this stuff. Sadly, it does not work as armour for my robots, as it blocks radio signals. That is one thing that I haven't been able to work around, but as soon as I can, my robot armies will be undefeatable!" He laughed maniacally, and I rolled my eyes. Even if his robots had really strong armour, that didn't make the stuff on the inside un breakable, and it certainly can't stop me from pushing them away with a good spin-dash before taking out the signal that keeps them following orders.

"All right doctor, I believe that this cage is me-worthy, so how are we going to get it to the Typhoon?"

"Well, I was hoping that you might be able to chaos control it out of here. It is much too heavy to carry out, even for my robots. I have a few fake emeralds here, and I know that you've used one before to teleport. Do you think you can do it?"

I thought about it. My first chaos control hadn't been that great of an experience. It was with a chaos emerald that Tails had made for his plane to fly from. It left me feeling really dizzy, and super nauseous. And Eggman probably had those Metarex Emeralds, which made me feel really sick too. I hadn't ever tired to teleport with something before. I'd only ever gone on my own. Once. But I should probably try, maybe it will be easier with a few of the emeralds to use the power of.

"I'm not sure if it will work, but I can try. This is really more of Shadow's thing though."

Eggman nodded. "I understand, we'll have to get him if this doesn't work." He pulled out a couple of emeralds and tossed them to me. As soon as I touched them, I felt like I was going to throw up, but I held it back, and put one in each hand as I put both my hands on the cage.

"So Tails, where am I taking this?" I realised that I had no idea where I wanted to teleport to.

Tails looked up from his watch. "Oh, right. The cargo bay should do, I don't think there are any other rooms that are big enough to hold it, anyways."

I nodded and concentrated. The nauseous feeling was growing, and I had to get this over quick. "All right guys, hold on." Everybody grabbed onto the box.

I closed my eyes, imagining the empty corner of the cargo bay, between the wall and the X-Tornado. I pictured the Master Emerald as it was the last time I had seen it. I thought of every little detail I could about the cargo bay, even stupid little memories that didn't really have any meaning. Then I imagined what this box would look like in the empty corner of the room, and how much space it would take up. I remembered to focus on each of the people that I was taking with me as well. I called on the chaos energy in the emeralds resting between my palms and the box. The energy rushed to meet me, and I focused it all into this vision I had created.

"Chaos Control!" I shouted, and nearly fell over when there was a horrible gut-wrenching twisting feeling that took over me for a second before my feet hit solid ground again, and then I fell over. This teleport was way worse than my first one. I dropped the emeralds as I hit the ground, they were making me feel really sick. I opened my eyes again, and thankfully, I was in the cargo bay. It had worked. I sat up and looked around. The cage was there, exactly where I had pictured it. All my friends were there, and so was Eggman. Everything was exactly how I had planned for it to be, which made me really relieved as I flopped back onto the floor. I really hate teleporting, I have no idea how Shadow does it.

"Sonic! You did it! Sonic?... Sonic?" Tails ran around the box to find me. "Sonic, are you okay?" He offered me a hand to help me up.

"Uggghhh" was all I could manage. I took his hand and got myself standing up, using the cage as support. Tails quickly took the emeralds away and gave them back to Eggman, who put them back into his pockets. That helped relieve my nausea. I still felt really dizzy, and I'm not sure if I really screwed up with chaos control, or it was just my vision, because there were two Tails' in front of me. I shook my head to shake myself out of it. That was the wrong thing to do. Shaking my head brought on another wave of nausea, and I ran to a corner of the room before throwing up. Ew. Thankfully, that was it, and I started to feel a whole lot better, until I could only see one of everybody.

Amy ran over to me to make sure that I was okay. I felt so embarrassed, I was probably all gross, but she didn't care, she just wanted to know that I was okay. "Sonic, come on, tell me you're okay." She demanded, making me looked at her. Looking at her eyes helped my head to stop spinning, and soon enough, I replied.

"I am _never_ doing that again." I said, crossing my arms. Amy nodded and smiled.

Knuckles thumped me on the back. "You had us worried there for a while, man."

"I'm fine, I promise." I grinned at my friends.

Eggman rolled his eyes. "You didn't have to do that, you know. If you couldn't handle it, we could have gotten Shadow. You don't always have to play hero, Sonic."

I stuck my tongue out at the doctor. "I can handle it, I _did_ get us all here. And I didn't know it was gonna feel like that, otherwise I would have gladly gotten Shadow. Last time it wasn't nearly that bad."

The doctor nodded. "Perhaps it has to do with these emeralds, Shadow doesn't seem to have a problem with them, but you don't seem to like them very much."

I rolled my eyes. "Ya think?" I asked sarcastically.

"Hey, guys. It's almost five thirty. Maybe we should set up the cage." Tails stated, looking up from his watch.

Eggman nodded, walking over to the cage door and holding down a button. A tinny robotic voice played. '_Identification, please_'

"Ivo Robotnik." Eggman responded.

There was a pause before the door replied. '_Identification accepted_.' There was a hiss, and the door slid open.

"Perfect. Now, hedgehog." The doctor turned to me. "In you go. We don't have much time left before dusk."

I gulped and walked into the cage, alone. Eggman pushed me the rest of the way in when I hesitated, then pushed the button again. The door slid closed as I turned around to glare at Eggman. The doctor waved to me as the door hissed, making itself airtight again. I stuck my tongue out at the doctor again, and turned my back on him, walking over to the flat bed on the floor in the middle of the cage. I sat down on top of the blankets, they were actually pretty comfortable. I sighed as I leaned back and looked out of the bay window to watch the sun slowly disappear behind the planet.

We all watched the sun as we waited for 5:48 to arrive.

**AN: Cliff hanger! Dun, dun, duuuuuuun. Hopefully it won't last very long, I'm back in the groove. TOTALLY over my writer's block XD. I hope you all have a great April fools day! Play loads of pranks on all your friends! Sonic the hedgehog approves this message XD. Okay, so I see lots of other authors role play with the characters after their chapters, so I kinda wanna try it out. Just for fun XD**

**Sonic: soooooooo... Do you want to tell me what's gonna happen? Because this cliff hanger is killing me!**

**Me: nope, sorry, no spoilers!**

**Sonic: awwww, come on, you can tell me, I'm the main character! *pouty face***

**Shadow: I have a few questions as well. *crosses arms***

**Me: forget it Sonic, you can find out when I write it. What do you want to know, Shadow?**

**Shadow: first of all, why on Mobius did I hug Faker? That would never happen. Also, what the heck is going on with Rouge and I? Why are we all on our own in the cafeteria?... Not that I'm complaining...**

**Me: well, ummmmmm... Sonic needed a hug. That's why you hugged him. You can't tell me you don't ever bro-hug anybody. And as for you and Rouge, you'll see *mischevious smile***

**Shadow: no. I don't. Especially not Faker. And you will tell me now, or I will chaos blast you into the next dimension. *threateningly touches inhibitor rings***

**Me: nope! You can't make me! *saves document and turns off computer***

**Sonic: wait... What just happened?**

**Shadow: I don't know, but I'm looking for someone to blame. *glares pointedly at Sonic***

**Sonic: uh-oh, ummm, gotta run! See ya later Shadow! *runs away at top speed***

**Shadow: *pulls out Swiss roll* yum. *eats the whole thing in one bite* *walks away, satisfied.***

**-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96**


	11. Chapter 11- Change is in the Air

**AN: thank you guys so much for all the comments, favourites, and reviews! Every single one counts, and they give me the motivation to keep writing! This one's a bit romance-y, but just bear with me. There's lots of action to come, and I won't leave you with just romance ._. I LOVE DOCTOR EGGMAN! DON'T JUDGE! (Hint, hint.) (well, maybe not as much as Silver and Shadow...)**

**Anyways, yay! More Sonic and Shadow! Enjoy, and Thanks again!**

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the hedgehog**

Chapter 11- Change is in the air

It seemed to take an eternity for the sun to disappear behind Mobius. I became impatient very quickly. I was staring at the ceiling of Eggman's cage when I noticed it. There were transparent platforms high up in the cage. I guess the doctor really did study hedgehog behaviours, because how else would he know that I love climbing? Maybe Tails put them in, but either way, it made me one very happy blue hedgehog. There weren't any ladders to help me up or anything, just a few platforms connected to the walls near the top of the cage.

I got up from the bed and grinned, thinking of how to get up to the lowest one. I saw Eggman watching me out of the corner of my eye, and he seemed pleased that I had noticed the platforms. I gave him a thumbs-up before backing into the farthest corner of the cage so that I could jump and bounce off the wall. My friends turned around to see what I was doing. I lined myself up, then ran halfway across the cage before jumping. I showed off by flipping in the air to land with my feet on the wall. I pushed off from the wall and reached out for the ledge of the platform. I nearly missed it, but just barely caught it with one hand. I gripped the edge tightly as I used my momentum to swing the rest of my body up onto the platform. I landed on my feet and turned around to see my friends rolling their eyes at me and turning around with amused expressions. Eggman was clapping slowly, looking impressed. I took a bow.

It was a simple matter to jump from platform to platform until I got to the highest one. It was too close to the ceiling for me to stand, so I laid down on my stomach and propped my head up on my elbows to keep an eye on everybody from my new vantage point. Tails was constantly looking from the sun, to his watch, to me, and back to the sun, he looked really nervous. Eggman was calmly watching the sun moving behind the planet. Knuckles was studying his knuckles, and only every now and then looking over at me and shaking his head like he thought I was ridiculous. The next time he did, I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes. Cosmo was watching the sun apprehensively, standing next to Tails. Cream was bouncing around, playing with Cheese. Chris was watching me and looking amused. I grinned and waved at him, he waved back and kept watching. Amy was also watching me, she looked like she was afraid I might fall or something, so I gave her a thumbs up, and rolled my eyes. She relaxed and laughed a little.

I turned my head to watch the sun again. By now it was almost completely hidden by the planet, and the light from the sun was fading from the cargo bay. As the bay became darker and darker, my skin began to tingle. As the last sliver of sunlight disappeared behind the planet, I felt my whole entire self become enveloped in a pins and needles feeling. As it had in previous experiences, I suddenly felt the need to duck and cover. I did so instinctively, and accidentally knocked my head into the platform. The pins and needles increased in intensity, and I felt my fur grow longer, my teeth lengthen into fangs, my feet grew and became clawed. My shoes changed to fit my paws, becoming spiked and metallic. I'm not sure why they change along with me, but they do. The feeling didn't particularly hurt, it just made me want to hide somewhere until it finished. In a few seconds, it was over. I lifted my head up to look at my friends, I didn't feel weird or anything, so I decided to call out to them.

"Hey, guys! I think I'm-" I was suddenly cut off by a huge migraine.

My vision went fuzzy and I howled as a feeling like a hundred knives attacked my head. There was a loud, piercing ringing in my ears. I grabbed my head and howled again as it grew. I was completely unprepared for this. My only thought was 'make it stop!' As I rolled around, clawing at my ears to make the ringing go away. Nothing worked. Somehow, I managed to forget that I was on a platform at the top of a cage that was easily 25 feet tall.

In my fit, I rolled right off the platform. I realised my mistake too late, and tried to make a desperate grab for the ledge before I hit the ground. Thankfully, my powers still worked, and my arm stretched to grasp it. I began to haul myself back up, relieved I hadn't fallen. I was almost all the way up when the migraine intensified. I forgot all about holding on and grabbed my head in pain as more imaginary daggers stabbed it.

I hardly even felt myself hit the ground, my head hurt way more and my crash felt irrelevant. I distantly heard my friends yelling and worrying outside the cage, but their voices became more and more distant with each passing second. Soon I couldn't hear anything over my own howling, and then there was a flash of purple light, and everything went dark.

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amy Rose**

"Sonic! Sonic!" I was pounding on the door to the cage in a desperate attempt to get to him and make sure he was okay. Knuckles was doing the same. Eggman was holding Tails back from opening the door.

My poor Sonic had fallen from at least twenty feet, and now he was howling and rolling around, holding his head. He was in so much pain, I just had to help him somehow. It was killing me to watch him like this and not be able to do anything. It seemed to last forever. I wanted, no, I _needed_ to break through this cage and help him. And nothing Knuckles or I did made any difference. The cage was truly invulnerable.

All of a sudden, Sonic glowed purple and stopped moving. When the light died out, his fangs were sharper, his fur was darker, and when his eyes opened, they were red. He rolled off his back and stood on all fours. Seeing that he was in a cage, and that we were all watching him, he growled and backed into a corner where no one was standing. Chris walked up to a window.

"Sonic, say something. Please say something!" His voice shook as he called to our friend.

Sonic saw Chris and for a second, his eyes became green, before being replaced with the red again. He snarled at Chris and glared at him distrustfully. Hot tears rolled down my face as I slid to my knees on the ground. I can't believe he was like this again. He was fine, he was normal, he was even talking to us. And then this side of him fought him for control, and won. Sonic was going to be so upset when he woke up. Unless he _was_ awake, and is aware of what he's doing this time. I really hope that isn't the case, it would be like being trapped inside yourself, unable to control anything. That would just be horrible for Sonic. It would be better for him to just be unconscious of his actions.

He started attacking the cage, using his huge claws to try and scratch his way out of the box. He ran around the cage, attacking and moving, probably looking for a weak spot. The thing that scared me, though, was that his claws _did _made marks on the material. Eggman and Tails were also perplexed and worried. It wasn't much, just tiny, nearly invisible lines. He wouldn't be getting out of the cage any time soon with little scratches like that, but it was still frightening that his claws could even do something against the material. Knuckles had jumped back when Sonic had attacked his part of the cage. He hadn't come my way yet, he was busy attacking a section of the wall mercilessly. When he gave up and turned away, the wall was fogged white from all the scratches on top of each other.

"That's... Impossible. It's incredible!" Eggman exclaimed from where he was, behind the part of the wall Sonic had been attacking. He ran a gloved hand across the box where all the scratches were. He had a strange expression on his face, like wonder and greed together. I immediately started worrying, Eggman was known to try and take things that impressed him. Sonic was literally trapped and was a sitting duck for Eggman to try and steal.

Knuckles and I noticed this at the same time. "Eggman, don't even think about it." We both growled at him.

Eggman looked up from the marks on his cage. "Hm? Of course, a promise is a promise. I will keep my word, Sonic is under no threat from me... For now. These scratches are nothing to worry about, the cage will hold him just fine. I'll be going back to my ship now, perhaps I should contact the Metarex. Please tell me if Shadow and Rouge wish to return to my ship. And make sure to remind them that they are by no means under any obligation to work with me, but also tell them to remember who rescued them." With that, the doctor walked out of the bay and towards his ship.

"No! Don't!" Tails ran after Eggman, causing him to turn around.

"My word, Tails, what is it?" The doctor appeared very confused, and I'm sure most of us looked the same way.

"Please Eggman, don't contact the Metarex. Just... Please. At least not until we've had time to recover from your attack last night. Come on, just give us a chance. I gave you a chance yesterday, and we worked with you. Please, return the favour?"

Eggman thought about, staring into the pleading kitsune's eyes. Finally he sighed. "A week. Then I contact them. But if they contact me before then, I will be forced to tell them what I know. You have my word." He turned on his heel and walked away stiffly.

Tails relaxed a little. "Thanks Eggman!"

Eggman glanced back. "You're... Welcome." He sped up and turned the corner into a hallway in his ship. We all relaxed as we watched him go.

Sonic howled from the centre of his cage, making all of us jump. He started pounding on the sides of the cage, his arms stretching out to both sides to hit opposite ends of the cage at the same time. The cage shook and shuddered, but didn't crack. I felt tears rolling down my face again as I watched him fighting a losing battle.

"I'm going to... Uh... go and tell Shadow and Rouge what Eggman said." Knuckles walked out of the room.

A few minutes later Tails spoke up. "I should go and start our descent, I'll come back once we've landed." He left and Cosmo followed with him.

That just left me, Cream, Cheese, and Chris watching Sonic. I was sitting down next to the cage, Cream and Cheese had come to sit next to me, and Chris was still standing by the window he had called to Sonic through earlier. Sonic had finally given up on breaking the cage, and he was now lying on the bed with a pillow in his mouth, tearing it up. I could tell that Cream was getting tired, and that Sonic was probably scaring her a bit. Cheese was asleep on her lap. I decided that its time for Cream to go to bed. I don't want to leave Chris alone though, and I promised Sonic that I'd stay all night.

"Hey, Chris, do you mind putting Cream to sleep? It's her bed time, and Sonic usually tucks her in. You should get some sleep too, we've all been up all night."

"But miss Amy... I'm not" Cream yawned. "...tired."

Chris smiled. "Sure you aren't, but you should at least help me tuck Cheese into bed. He looks pretty tired." He walked over and took Cream's hand. She got up and followed him out of the room while carrying Cheese in her other arm.

I kept watching Sonic chew on his pillow. I got up and stood on my tiptoes to reach one of the windows. Sonic saw me and dropped his pillow to growl. He glared at me with ruby red eyes.

I sighed. "C'mon Sonic, I know you're in there somewhere. You know who I am, and you know that I would _never_ hurt you. Please stop acting like an animal and come over here. You're better than this."

Sonic cocked his head quizzically and got up onto all fours. He slowly approached my window, and I got a flash of hope. He lifted himself onto his back paws so his face reached the window. I didn't dare to move. He sniffed me through the bars, and then moved his head back to stare at me. He made a lopsided grin and dropped back onto all fours, his eyes flashed green again. He looked perfectly happy for a moment, then his eyes turned red again. He looked at me longingly and trotted over to the door and pawed at it like he wanted out.

I sighed again. "I can't let you out Sonic, you told me not to. And only Eggman and Tails can do that anyways."

He didn't stop, he kept scratching at the door and whining, giving me a pleading look with those ruby red irises. It was driving me insane, not being able to let him out when he looked like that. I had to look away.

"Sonic, stop it! I can't do anything!" I yelled in frustration. He kept it up for a few minutes while I turned my back.

He finally knocked it off and sat back down with a huff. I peeked back over my shoulder to see him hiding his face in his paws with his back turned to me. He looked like he was trying to sleep or something. It was more likely that he was pouting about not having gotten his way.

Looking at him reminded me of how much I cared about him. Sonic probably had no idea how much I love him. I may be going about it the wrong way but that's just who I am. Personally, I think he secretly likes being chased around. At least it gives him a reason to run, and if that makes him happy, then that's all that matters to me. My only wish is for him to like me back. It may sound a little selfish, but I kind of liked the fact that Sonic freaked out and destroyed almost all the Metarex because I got hurt. At least it gives me hope that he cares, maybe more than he lets on.

Before I knew it, I was talking to him through the window, not really about anything in particular, just talking. I told him how happy he made me when he gave me a rose last summer once he got back, I told him about how I felt the first time we met. I even told him about how when I feel sad, I go to the spot we met, and I wait for him to run by again, because he's always running through that place. I knew he won't remember any of it, and that he will most likely wake up from this form completely oblivious to anything that happened, but the talking makes me feel better.

Sonic slowly lifted his head to look at me. His eyes were green again. I kept on talking; telling him what I wished he would say to me, and how happy I would be if he did. I went on like that for a few hours, nobody came to disturb us. Sonic watched me the whole night, and I got the feeling that somewhere, deep down inside, the real Sonic was listening.

I fell asleep leaning against the cage, and he did the same, curled up against the wall by me. I dreamt of the day we met.

* * *

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow the Hedgehog**

I shut my eyes to think. Well, this is awkward. First I feel like I'm about ready to ditch Rouge and never talk to her again, and then that video... And now I'm really confused, which is really not my thing. And then Sonic had his issues... Which I believe I handled _very_ well. At least, I had a bit of fun, which doesn't usually happen. And then Rouge kind of ordered me to stay here, and I felt like I should because of the video. Then again, everything since I hit my head, well, more than just my head, has felt different. For some reason, Sonic didn't annoy me so much, Rouge hardly annoyed me at all, and generally, I feel more relaxed. I think that's the word. I can't even remember the last time I felt relaxed like this, or if I ever was this relaxed. My memories are coming back as well, it seems like almost everything I do brings back a new memory about Maria. Even though I've remembered so much, I know this is only the beginning. There is so much more that I have to recall.

I'm kind of disappointed that I'm not going to personally see whether Sonic is normal or not, but I can tell that Rouge really wants to talk to me, and I won't deny her. We didn't have much time to talk before when Sonic told us to meet him in the lunchroom before Sonic showed up. She only really asked me if I was okay and what I thought of the videos. I never thought Rouge cared about anyone besides herself, but the way she acted in that video... I'm curious why she would protect me like that. We've never really talked save for trading insults, but she stood up to Sonic and put her own life in danger for me. I know that she had a plan, and they never would have reached her anyways, but it takes guts to stand in front of a shot like that. And the way she broke down when she saw me injured leaves me completely perplexed. And she took such great care when I woke up. I didn't appreciate it at the time because I felt like I was being treated like a two year old, but she was so patient and careful. The only other person to ever be like that was... No. I won't think about it, it will only bring back bad memories. But I think I can give Rouge a second chance.

"Hey, Shadow? I'm really sorry about lying. I just thought... I don't know what I was thinking. I just didn't want to stress you out. Can you forgive me?"

I opened my eyes to look at her. Truthfully, I already had forgiven her, but she didn't need to know that. I figured that now is my chance to get back at her for messing with me earlier. "Maybe... It depends."

Rouge looked hopeful. "On what? What do I have to do for you to forgive me?"

I grinned evilly at the possibilities. "Well, firstly you have to sing the Mobian anthem in front of everybody, in a bikini. Then you can go tell Knuckles that you're deeply in love with him, and you want everyone to know. You have to not steal anything for two years, and spend a whole day saying nothing but the word 'Chao' to everybody you talk to." I waited for her to respond.

Her face was priceless, I wish I'd had a camera. "Wait, _what_? I can't... you've gotta be kidding me..." She stammered, looking very surprised.

My grin grew, it felt good to smile. "I am."

She hadn't really been paying attention. "Huh? You're what?"

I laughed a little. "I'm just messing with you, consider us even now. But I'm seriously considering making you sing in a bikini..." I laughed again.

She pouted. "Okay, I kind of deserve that, but I'm not singing. Especially not in a two-piece, you can forget that. But seriously, please forgive me, I know I shouldn't have lied to you, but I'm really sorry."

I sighed. "Yeah, I forgive you. I saw what you did for me while I was... Out of commission. It looks like I owe you one."

"Really? Thanks Shad!" I got an unexpected hug from the relieved bat.

I wasn't sure if I should return it, so I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just do me a favour and stop calling me Shad."

She pulled away, unfazed. "Why don't you like it? I think it sounds cute."

I shook my head. "Okay, first of all, I'm the Ultimate Lifeform. I was designed to be the ultimate weapon. I don't do cute. Second of all, its just lazy, its really not that hard to say 'Shadow' rather than 'Shad'. Leaving a syllable off doesn't save you any time. And lastly, my name isn't Shad. That a good enough reason for you?"

"Okay, fine _Shadow_. I won't call you Shad anymore. Happy?" She pouted.

I thought about it. "Yes." I realised that I was still smiling.

"For real? You're actually happy? That's all it took?"

I was a bit offended. "Why are you so surprised? I'm not _that_ cold, am I?"

She looked embarrassed. "Uhhhh, no, that's not what... You know what Shadow? About me saving you before, you don't owe me anything, just consider it a down payment for all those times you save my butt during missions. Okay?" She changed the subject, and I noticed.

I'm not going to let it slide. "Oh no you don't. Tell me what you really think, do you honestly believe that I am never happy?" This is something I've kind of wanted to know for a while. Does everyone really think that I'm always angry? I know I can be grumpy... Most of the time... But that doesn't mean that I'm never happy. I'm content when I'm alone, or when people are being quiet. And now that I have good memories to look back on, I feel less clueless, and so I'm way more comfortable around people... sort of. As long as they aren't doing anything to annoy me. Like calling me Shad.

She bit her lip. "Well... Yeah. You come across as the very unhappy type. No offence, but I hardly ever see you smile, and when you do, it's usually because someone else did something stupid or hurt themselves, so its more like a smirk. I don't think I've ever seen a genuine smile from you until last night when you got hurt. And then it was because you were a bit on the crazy side, according to Cream. You're kind of scary. No, I don't think you're really ever happy anymore. Sorry."

I had to smile a little. "Well, at least you're being honest." I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess I'm not very happy around people, so no offence taken."

She gave a relieved sigh. "I was worried you would get mad at me. You know, its nice talking to you with out us insulting each other. I wish you would talk more." Then she clapped a hand over her mouth, looking a little embarrassed.

I smiled a bit wider and leaned back in my seat. "You wanna know a secret?"

She nodded interestedly. "Sure, what is it about? I promise I won't tell anybody."

I sighed and stared at the ceiling. "The reason I never say anything. It's because I never know what to say. Amnesia makes you kind of clueless, and I never have anything to talk about. And Eggman isn't much for conversation tips. So I kind of just listen to you people and act like I just don't want to talk to anybody. I know it sounds pretty pathetic, but that's why I stay out of conversations, and sometimes I don't have the greatest comebacks."

She grinned. "That actually makes sense! I never thought of it that way. You're a pretty good actor, I really believed that you just felt no need to say anything, like you were too good to talk to the rest of us. Wow. You should talk to us more. Learning by experience, right?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Hey, what do you think happened with Sonic? Do you think he's normal? It's almost sunset, right?"

Rouge checked her watch. "Yeah sunset should have been almost five minutes ago. I hope he's okay, do you want to start heading over to check on him?"

I nodded. "Sure. Let's go." I got up from my chair and started towards the door, but fell onto my knee. I had been sitting on my bad foot, and it didn't support my weight because it had gone numb. "Ugh." I caught myself using the chair.

Rouge ran over. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

I waved her off. "Calm down, my foot just fell asleep. It's nothing."

"Wow, I didn't know that your foot _could_ go numb."

I raised an eyebrow as I shook my foot out. "Why not?"

"Well, because you're the Ultimate LifeForm, right?"

I smirked. "Correct."

"So, you have nearly bulletproof skin, immunity to poison and sickness, chaos powers, and you can run at incredible speeds without killing yourself... I thought maybe that kind of thing doesn't happen to you."

I snickered. "True, but other than all that stuff you mentioned, I work the same way as everybody else. If I sit on my leg long enough, it _will_ go numb. There are some things that just can't be avoided."

Rouge laughed a little and we continued towards the door. We hadn't taken even two steps out into the hall until a certain red echidna ran head first into us.

He nearly knocked Rouge over, but I was behind her, so I stopped her from falling. "Knuckles! Watch it! Why are you in such a hurry?!" She exclaimed angrily.

Knuckles rubbed his nose. "Sorry, sorry. I have a message for you two from Eggman."

Rouge twisted her shoulders out of my hands, I had forgotten I was holding them. "Well, spit it out then. What does he want?"

Knuckles rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, he wanted to tell you two that he went back to his ship."

Knuckles looked like he had more to say, but wasn't sure how to say it. I knew the feeling. I decided to give him a little push. "Anything else?"

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, he said to tell you that if you want to go back, then you're more than welcome, but he understands if you want to stay because of your injuries or something."

"Wait, we don't have to go back? Are you sure?" Rouge was ecstatic.

"That's what he said. It's entirely up to you. But he also said to remind you who rescued you." Knuckles looked confused. "I'm not sure what he means by that."

I rubbed my temple. "It's okay, you don't need to know Knuckles. Thanks for telling us, do you think you can give us a minute to think?"

The echidna nodded. "Sure thing, I'm going to the control room, meet me and Tails there when you make a decision, okay?"

Rouge nodded too. "Deal, see ya in a few, Knux." The red Mobian waved and ran off.

I turned to Rouge. "So, are you going back?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure yet, are you?"

I shook my head. "Me neither. I did sort of swear loyalty to the doctor, but I'm thinking that I've more than made up for him waking me up by now. Anyways, he has the Metarex on his side now, so he doesn't really need me anymore. Then again, he did bring me back to health when I nearly died last year. But after recent events... Do I still owe him? He _did_ say it was our choice. What do you think?"

Rouge put a gloved hand on my shoulder. "Honey, you've made up for that. Think about how many times you've saved Eggman's butt! And if it weren't for you yesterday, we'd all be fried. Stop thinking about this logically. What do _you_ want? If you had to make a choice for the rest of your life, who would you choose? Sonic or Eggman?"

I really thought about it. Honestly, neither was that great of a choice. They both annoy me a lot, and I'm not too thrilled about being caught in the middle of their rivalry. I sighed. "I can't decide, what are you going to do?"

She sighed too. "I'm having a bit of trouble as well. As you've probably noticed, I don't play nice with others, so Sonic's team isn't the best choice for me. However, I've repaid my debt to Eggman, and I don't appreciate being told what to do all the time by him. I really only stuck around so that you didn't end up all alone with him, and because he looks like he might be winning. But with Sonic's power yesterday, I think I'm changing my mind. I guess I'm staying, if only so I can mess with Knuckles more. Anyways, if Sonic is messed up again, these guys could use all the help they can get. Does that help you at all?"

I nodded slowly, planning how to answer. "Yeah, it does. I'm not that great with lots of people either, but I'm sick of being ordered around too. I don't particularly like the Metarex much either, and I don't want to work with them anymore. You seem to make pretty smart decisions, so I'll stick with you and these guys for now. I guess I'm staying too."

She grinned brightly. "Yeah! I've still got the best mission buddy anyone could ask for, minus Eggman!"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't call me your mission buddy. We're partners on missions sometimes. Not 'mission buddies', it sounds ridiculous."

It was her turn to roll her eyes. "You're such a killjoy. Come on, let's go tell the others so they can let Eggman know."

I nodded, then half smiled. "Yeah, race you there." Then I took off at half-speed so she could catch up from the sudden start.

To say the least, Rouge was not happy. She yelled my name angrily as I ran through the hall, but I was already halfway down it. I heard her boots click on the metal as she took off to catch up. Soon the clicking turned into wings flapping, and I knew she was picking up speed. Sadly, she doesn't go anywhere near as fast as Sonic, so I slowed down as I turned a corner to give her a chance. I wasn't even going fast enough to activate my rocket shoes yet, and the clanking created by my running was pretty loud. I was halfway to the control room and thoroughly enjoying the run when Rouge finally caught up with me.

She was flying beside me. "What was that all about?!"

I kept pace with her as she tried to pass me. "Can't a guy just have fun?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, right. New Shadow likes to talk to people, smile, and now have fun?"

We drew closer to the end of the hall and I sped up more to pass her. I frowned. "What do you mean, new Shadow?"

Rouge stayed silent and looked at the ground as she landed behind me. I won the race to the control room.

I'm not letting her get away with that comment. "I asked you a question, Rouge."

She walked past me into the nearly empty room. "I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that you've been acting so differently since you hit your head, I hardly recognise you."

I didn't feel any different, if a little worse for wear, and more relaxed now that I don't have to worry about the Metarex or Eggman. "Is that a bad thing?"

The others had turned in our direction from the sounds of our conversation. Rouge blushed and kept staring at her boots. "No, I, uhhhh, I like talking to the new you. You're very interesting. But that doesn't mean you should go running off with your injuries like that. Be more careful, Shadow!"

I smirked. "Who needs to be careful when you have bulletproof skin?"

Rouge sighed. "You're impossible."

My smirk widened into a grin. "If you say so."

We arrived at the small group of people at the controls. She sighed again. "When did you get so cocky?"

I shrugged and looked up at the other Mobians. They were giving us odd stares. I stopped smiling and made a straight face again. Rouge looked up as well.

Knuckles cleared his throat. "So, have you two decided yet?"

We were about to answer when Tails cut in. "We're more than happy to welcome you if you want to stay, we have plenty of space, and I'm sure Cream would be ecstatic if you stuck around. She makes really great food, and her mom is even better. We're visiting everyone's houses tomorrow so we can all get properly fed and rested before we restock and move on. And Eggman said he didn't mind if you stayed, its your choice!"

I looked at Rouge before raising an eyebrow at the kit. "You done?"

The fox nodded enthusiastically and then his cheeks turned red in embarrassment.

"Okay, well, before you cut me off, I was about to say that we decided to stay, as long as its okay with all of you. And since you've made it rather obvious that you were hoping we'd stay, I'm assuming it _is_ okay with you, so thanks."

The red echidna behind the kit perked up. "Wait, both of you? You're _both_ ditching Eggman?"

Rouge took a step forward and nodded. "Yeah, we're partners, we stick together. And we're both tired of Egghead ordering us around. By the way, shouldn't we contact him and tell him not to hold his breath?"

Wow. She is really rude. "Rouge, don't be so rude, remember what the doctor did for us. You would still be floating around in space if it weren't for him."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Oh please. You're one to talk. You can lecture me on not being rude when you apologise to Sonic for every one of those insults yesterday. Anyways, its just Eggman, and I've more than made up for that."

I shrugged. "Fine, suit yourself."

The two other Mobians were watching us carefully. Tails spoke up. "Well, welcome to the team! I'm going to start contacting Eggman. If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did he help you two?"

Rouge and I looked at each other and nodded. Rouge started. "Well, when everybody took off from the planet, I assumed something fun was happening and I didn't want to be left out, so I got a small spaceship of my own. Unfortunately, it didn't hold up that well and it became damaged and low on fuel. I managed to escape to Eggman's ship, and he let me on so I could survive. That was a long time ago though, and I've helped him out enough to cover my debt."

Rouge looked to me. I sighed. "I'm a bit more complicated. When I was awoken by the doctor the first time, I pledged loyalty to him as the ultimate Lifeform and the creation of his grandfather. However, I believe that promise only reached as far as he was dealing with the space colony ARK and Earth. And in that instance, it was my job to activate the ARK so that it would begin its path of destruction for the planet, and I was really only using the doctor in order to achieve that goal. You all know what happened after that, Sonic changed my mind, and we ended up stopping the ARK together. I used all my power by taking off my inhibitor rings, and I fell down to the planet where I would likely die. The doctor rescued me, and for that, I owe him my life. He promised me that if I helped him once again, he would help me to regain my memories, so I agreed. However, I have helped him many times, and saved his butt too many times to count. He has failed in restoring my memories. My debt is repaid."

Knuckles had been paying close attention the whole time, as had the seedrian behind the kitsune, who was typing furiously on his keyboard. I could tell that Tails was also listening closely, because his ears were up and flicking around at every sound.

Knuckles nodded once I finished. "Well, I'm glad you decided to join our team, we're always happy to have new friends. I'll go ask Cream for help setting up rooms for you two. Unless you want to stay in the same room? Because some of us room together. What do you guys prefer?"

Rouge and I answered at the same time.

"I'd rather be on my own." I responded.

"We should room together! It'll be fun, Shadow!"

Knuckles was confused. "Ummm, come again?"

I covered Rouge's mouth with my hand. "We'd like separate rooms, if you don't mind."

Rouge stomped on my foot, but I just smirked, my shoes were made of metal. So she poked me in the side. I had no idea how much that would hurt with my injury. I doubled over and yelped. Rouge's mouth was no longer covered.

Rouge looked upset. "Sorry Shadow. But c'mon! We're partners, its just a room together, you don't always have to be so lonely!"

Knuckles was still standing there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. I straightened up and glared daggers at Rouge. Then I turned to the echidna. "Actually, I'll probably sleep in the clinic tonight anyways. If its not too much trouble, could you take Rouge with you, and she can help you set up what she wants. Maybe we can decide something tomorrow. I know my way to the clinic. Thanks for helping us out."

Knuckles nodded and began in the direction of the door. Rouge protested, but I shoved her towards the echidna, and she gave up, following Knuckles to set up her room.

When they were gone, I looked at Tails. "Are we ready to contact him yet?"

The kitsune nodded and pressed a button. There was a beeping sound, and then Eggman's face appeared on the screen. He had cleaned himself up, and he looked somewhat cheerful.

The doctor grinned at Tails. "Why, hello again. Long time no see, fox. I'm assuming you have called to tell me Shadow and Rouge's decisions?"

Tails nodded. "You would be right, Eggman."

The doctor smiled smugly. He then looked around like he was trying to see more. "I don't see Rouge or Shadow with you, does that mean that they are on their way back to my ship?" He seemed really hopeful, I almost didn't want to burst his bubble. Almost.

I walked into Eggman's field of view. "I've chosen to stay, Doctor."

His face fell. But then he recomposed himself. "Oh, I see. And Rouge?"

I felt a pang of guilt. "She's staying too. She's with Knuckles setting up a room for herself right now."

The doctor frowned again. "So both of you are switching sides. I suppose if that's what you want, its your decision."

I had no idea he could make me feel so guilty. I wanted to say something meaningful, so I decided to use his true name. "Ivo. I may have stopped working for you, but that doesn't mean I wish to fight you. Sonic can have his go at you all he wants, but I'm staying out of it. I'm sure that Rouge would feel the same way."

A hint of a smile appeared on the doctor's lips. "Hmmm, Ivo... no one has called me _that_ in a while. How do you even know my name?"

It was my turn to give a smug smile. "You told me yourself. Last year, when you released me. Don't you remember?" I haven't been able to ask that question in what seems like forever. It felt nice.

Apparently Eggman also found the idea of the amnesiac asking him if he remembered something amusing. He grinned widely. "Of course _I_ remember, I just wasn't sure if you really did. I'm glad to see your memory is finally improving. I suppose if they help you remember more of your life, it is best that you stay with Sonic and his friends. Also, once the Metarex regroup, they aren't going to be happy. Sonic is going to need all the help he can get, especially since he has to be locked up at night now. I wish you the best of luck, project Shadow. Say goodbye to Rouge for me, will you? Its been fun."

I gave the doctor a rare genuine smile. "The same for you. Good luck, doctor Robotnik. I'll tell her for you, don't worry."

"Farewell, hedgehog." The doctor shut off his screen, cutting off our connection.

"Goodbye for now, doctor." I mumbled, so only I could hear.

* * *

**BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...**

**AN: yeah, I'm sorry for the super long wait! I've been caught up with homework, exams coming up, art on my deviantart account **** , and I started another story, as some of you may have noticed... (Why do I do this to myself?!) well, until exams are over, these chapters will likely be coming out only one or two times a month. But once summer gets here, they will definitely be coming out much faster. Also, I plan to finish this story before the summer ends, and even if it lasts longer, I promise all of you that I WILL finish it, no matter what. You won't be left with a cliffhanger for a few years. You have my word. I don't take giant hiatus'.**

**AWESOME LONG ROLE PLAY**

***with envytheskunk on deviantart **** ***

**Me: *shows Silver this story***

**Silver: *reads* Wow, I'm glad I'm not in this story, everyone got pretty messed up.**

**Sonic: you're just jealous she didn't put you in her first story. I mean, Chip and Tikal will be in this story, and you won't.**

**Silver: I'm pretty sure its because she cares about me more, the rest of you can get messed up. I'm being protected. So ha!**

**Shadow: ... Wow. Ego much?**

**Silver: well, just look at yourself! Your skull is completely shattered! Sonic is stuck turning into some evil monster every night, and Knuckles's master Emerald is basically dead!**

**Shadow: I'm fine. You have no proof otherwise.**

**Knuckles: shuddap about my emerald! She's gonna be fine!**

**Silver: ... She? And Shadow, even Tails said you should be dead.**

**Shadow: well, the fact is I'm NOT dead. I'm outta here. *growls and leaves***

**Knuckles: ... Yes. She. Hey, do you have any idea when Tikal comes in?**

**Silver: weeeeeell...**

**Me: *clamps hand over Silver's mouth* no spoilers! Geez, Silver. Don't go giving away all my secrets!**

**Sonic: come on! Tell us! When does Chip come in? I miss that guy.**

**Me: you will all see. Just be patient for once in your life, Sonic.**

**Knuckles: fat chance of that happening... *jumps away from door as it is slammed open***

**Amy: *barges in* That's it! Who called my man a monster? *pulls out her hammer* Was it you? *points it at Knuckles***

**Knuckles: n-no, *points to Silver* it was him, I swear! Don't come near me with that thing!**

**Silver: dude! Way to sell me out! *backs up from Amy***

**Sonic: you're on your own, man.**

**Amy: *advances on silver* nobody calls my Sonikku a monster! No one!**

**Silver: *backs into corner* somebody help! Silverfangirl96, stop her! Pleeease?**

**Me: hahaha, nope. This is WAY too funny.**

**Silver: what?! But you're my fan girl! Your name says so! C'mon, help me!**

**Me: can I have a hug?**

**Silver: yes! Anything!**

**Me: _anything_?**

**Silver: I'll give you a hug if you stop her from killing me!**

**Me: *thinks about it* deal. Hey Amy!**

**Amy: I'm busy! *still walking slowly towards terrified Silver, swinging her hammer***

**Me: what if I gave you a hint about what happens later in the story? It has to do with you and Soniiiiic.**

**Amy: Really?! *she forms a huge smile and her eyes sparkle***

***She then aimlessly throws her hammer in the air and zips to you. Sadly, because she didn't know where she threw the hammer it lands on Silver head.***

**Silver: *Silver then gets a dizzy look and starts to say crazy things while walking in loopy lines* Yes, I would love more cheese for my tea!**

**Me: Silver! are you okay?!**

**Silver: the moon has a nice hat today, doesn't it?**

**Amy: he's fine, now tell me about what happens with Sonikku and I!**

**Sonic: *somewhat worried* uh, Silver, you do know that its the middle of the day, right? And we're inside. You can't even see the moon.**

**Me: okay Amy. *whispers in her ear about her amazing kiss scene coming up***

**Amy: Yes! In your face, Chris!**

**Chris: Bu-bu-but Sonic! You said you loved me! *cries like a baby***

**Silver: Why is that rain cloud talking?**

**Sonic: *inches away from Amy and chris* well then, I'm just gonna take Silver to Cream's house now... Later. *grabs Silver and runs for it***

**Silver: wheeeeeeee! Go llama go!**

**Amy: but Sonikku! Wait up!**

**Chris: Sonic, don't go!**

***they chase after him***

**Shadow: *comes back with Swiss roll* what did I miss?**

**Knuckles: just one of the funniest things I've ever seen.**

**Chip: Where do all these people keep popping up?!**

***Everybody looks at Chip with a blank expression***

**Chip: What? *shrugs***

**Me: I dunno, wherever you came from, I guess. I don't really remember inviting anybody but Sonic, Shadow, Silver and Knuckles into my house...**

**Espio: *stops being invisible right next to me* Oh, is that where we are?**

**Me: Ahhhh! What? Where did... Oh right, invisibility. This is getting ridiculous.**

**Knuckles: *scratches the back of his neck* I might have invited a few more people...**

**Charmy: *Slams open the door* Hey guys!**

***Vector pushes Charmy out of the way***

**Vector: Yo, toots! Where's the grub?**

**Chip: Now that you mention it, I'm getting a little hungry too. *pulls out a chocolate bar and starts to eat it***

**Vector: *Looks at Chip* Food!**

**Then Vector tries to jump on Chip but Chip flies around the room while Vector chases him.**

**Chip: Why me?! Shadow is the one with the swiss roll!**

**Me: *glares at knuckles* exactly how many people did you invite?!**

**Knuckles: uhhhhh, just a few more...**

**Chip: *hides behind me* help! He's gonna eat me!**

***Meanwhile...***

**Vector: Swiss roll? Where?!**

**Charmy: Shadow's got it! Lets get him!**

**Shadow: pffft. As if. Chaos control! *teleports to the other side of the room* you'd have to catch me first.**

***Tikal and blaze walk in***

**Blaze: hello? Are we in the right place?**

***Sonic comes back with Amy and Chris close behind***

**Sonic: Hey Blaze, Silver is at Cream's house if you're looking for him. Amy hit him in the head by accident. He's saying some **_**weird**_** things...**

***Blaze sets her fists on fire***

_**TO BE CONTINUED...**_

**Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96. (I'm changing my username to Biagotmilkandjelly, its more original and its what I use for deviantart now) (its a combination of my last name, 'Got Milk?', and 'and jelly'. Because YES.)**


	12. Chapter 12- New Allies, New Enemies

**AN: Sorry this is taking so long, Here's the next chapter! It picks up right where we left off.**

**(Time jumps! Yayyyyyy...ish)**

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow The Hedgehog**

Chapter 12: New Allies, New Enemies

I nodded to Tails. "Thank you, good night."

"It's not a problem, Shadow. Have a good rest, were going to reach the surface soon, though. So don't get too comfortable just yet. You should brace yourself for landing."

I nodded again. "Thanks for the warning. Bye." The kit didn't respond, and I began walking back through to the hallway and in the direction of the clinic.

Soon enough, I made it to the clinic, but I didn't really feel tired, and I knew the ship was about to land soon anyways. I ended up just continuing to walk. I eventually arrived at the cargo bay again. I stopped, thinking about going inside. I could hear someone talking behind the door, but I couldn't tell what the person was saying. I did kind of want to know what happened to Sonic for myself, even though the doctor had already told me what happened.

I decided. I quietly pulled the door open a bit, just enough for me to see what was going on without interrupting the person talking. The only other person in the room was Amy. She was sitting by the cage, and talking to the beast inside. I assumed that was Sonic. He was huge, and his fur was very dark, almost the same as mine, but not quite. From what I could see of his paws, his claws were extremely long. I couldn't see much more than that, because his back was turned to me, and he was lying down like he was resting. Also, the cage's martial seemed to be somewhat fuzzy. I wondered what it was made of.

My ears perked up so that I could hear what Amy was saying better. I was confused at first, and not really sure if I was hearing her right. She seemed to be talking to sonic, but it wasn't a conversation, and she didn't pause to wait for a response from him. More, she was just telling him a string of somewhat random thoughts. One word kept popping up though. 'Love'. I listened for a little bit. I didn't really understand a whole lot of it. It seemed fairly irrelevant and a lot of it was really mushy.

Soon I realised I was probably intruding on something special to her. As quietly as I could, I stepped back through the door and closed it without a sound. I made a silent vow to never mention it to anyone.

I turned around to head back to the clinic, but nearly ran into someone right away. I blinked. "Rouge, what are you doing here?"

She grinned slyly like a fox. "The same as you, I wanted to check up on Sonic... God, Shadow, why do you look so guilty?"

I quickly scowled to hide it. "I don't know what you mean. Just go back to your room, Rouge. There's nothing interesting to see." If she heard Amy say those things, there would be no telling what Rouge would do. Most likely she'd jump out interrupt her or something. I figured Amy was stressed enough about Sonic's situation, she shouldn't have to deal with Rouge too. Unfortunately, that was my job.

Rouge pouted. "Why? What's so not interesting that I can't see?"

That bat is incredibly annoying. I rolled my eyes. "Nothing. Sonic is... Sleeping; you wouldn't want to wake him up." I walked past her down the corridor, hopefully she'll forget about it and follow me. Knowing Rouge, as soon as I stop 'guarding' the door, she'll lose interest in it.

And I was right. She jogged a bit to catch up with me. "Fine. But I talked to Cream, and she told me that you still have to have someone around when you sleep. You aren't off the hook just yet."

I closed my eyes and sighed. "And I suppose that means I'm stuck with you again?"

She didn't notice my sigh. "Yeah, so follow me, Knuckles and I set up a two-bed room. I am _so_ not sleeping on a chair again." She jumped ahead of me and headed down a different hall.

Shaking my head, I followed. I never seem to get my way. I really can't wait until people stop treating me like an invalid, but from the look of that X-Ray, that might not be for a while. I followed Rouge silently, not really wanting to talk to her. On the way to wherever she was taking me, I felt the ship touch down, and both of us lost our balance for a few seconds before I regained mine using the wall. Rouge hadn't been expecting it at all, and she nearly fell over completely, but her wings rescued her from an embarrassing face plant. I smirked at her as she got back on her feet.

She turned around immediately to look at me, she seemed worried. But when she saw me smirking at her and leaning against the wall, her look turned into a glare. "You knew that was going to happen, didn't you!"

I shrugged. "I wasn't exactly sure _when_ we would land, but yeah."

She glared at me, then took a step forward and shoved my shoulder, causing me to take a step back to keep my balance. "Jerk." She said, just loud enough for me to hear. Then she turned around and kept walking, shoulders stiff.

I just kept following her, not bothering to say anything else. We arrived at the room soon enough.

Rouge went in first, and I stepped in a bit after her, taking my time before I was stuck in a room with a ticked off bat for the rest of the night. I was thankful for my reflexes as I walked over the threshold, because as soon as I put a foot in the room, something came flying at my face. I caught it in one hand, and then took a look to see what Rouge threw at me. It was a pillow, and as soon as I lowered the first, another came flying at me, and I caught it too. I looked at Rouge, who was out of pillows.

I cocked an eyebrow at her, then smirked. "Thanks for the extra pillows." I tucked them under my arm and sat down on the other bed. I glanced over at her to see her fuming on her, now pillowless, bed. She flopped back on her flat bed and I shook my head and tossed one of her pillows onto her face. She sat up and I smirked again. "There are easier ways to tell me that you're angry." I tossed the other one back as well. It's not like I need four.

She looked at me funny, but just shrugged and put her pillows back where they belonged. "Good night, Shadow." She sighed, turning her back on me.

I didn't respond, instead staring at the ceiling with my head back on my pillow. I still wasn't quite tired, so I was laying on top of the blankets. The room wasn't too terribly interesting, which I kind of liked. It was simple, and functional. It reminded me of the room I shared with Maria on the ARK. I was perfectly content to just lay back, stare at the ceiling, and think for a while, but eventually I did get tired, and I kicked off my rocket boots before getting under the covers. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Miles 'Tails' Prower**

Once we landed, I just went to sleep in my room on the ship. Everyone else had gone to bed, and I wasn't going to wake them all up. We've all had a long day. Unpacking and visiting everyone on Mobius can wait until morning.

~~~Later~~~

My alarm went off, and I was the first one up, as usual. The sun hasn't risen yet, so I figured I might as well go check on Sonic. I got out of my bed and put on my shoes and gloves and things before leaving my room. I jogged down to the cargo bay. I found Amy and Sonic curled up against the same wall of the cage. They were jut on different sides of the wall. Sonic looked harmless while he was curled up and sleeping. I still can't believe that this happened to Sonic. He's my _hero_. How could this happen to him? He's always so nice, and he always does the right thing. What the heck has he done to deserve this? I can't think of anything.

I wish I could do something for him. But I have no idea what to do. I know we need to restore the chaos emeralds, but what do we do after that? Somehow his dark side became tied to his Werehog transformation. Does it just disappear once we bring him back to normal? Or will he just be stuck like that? Too much about this is unknown to us. The only way we can truly find out what will happen is to try it and see.

I went over to Amy and shook her shoulder a little. "Hey Amy, good morning."

She opened her eyes sleepily and blinked herself awake. After a little bit, she sat up and stretched. "That definitely isn't the most comfortable place to sleep. Good morning Tails."

I smiled and helped her up. "Do you think we should wake Sonic up too?"

She yawned. "No, just let him sleep. He could do with the extra rest."

Knuckles came in with a granola bar. It had raisins in it, of course. Knuckles and his grapes... He was also carrying a boy of Cheerios. How hungry is he? "Hey guys!" He greeted us. "How'd you two sleep?"

Amy stretched again. "Like a sack of potatoes."

I yawned. "I slept well, and you?"

"I slept okay, but I had a weird dream." He answered.

"What was it about?" Amy pried.

Knuckles shrugged. "Another echidna. She looked kind of old fashioned, like she was part of a tribe or something. She said something about the master emerald, but I can't remember what it was now. I think I've seen her before..."

I shrugged. "That's weird. Hey, we're on the planet now, so you can take the emerald back to angel island if you want. Maybe you can figure out what's wrong with it there!"

Knuckles nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But I'll wait for Sonic first. I brought him some breakfast." He held up the box of Cheerios.

I smiled. "That's nice of you. The sun should be up soon, so you don't have long to wait."

Knuckles was about to say something, but he was interrupted by Chris coming in with Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese behind him.

I waved to them. "Good morning, guys!"

Chris nodded. "Good morning to you as well. How's Sonic?"

"Still sleeping." Amy glanced over at Sonic, then did a double take. "Or not..."

Everyone looked at Sonic. He was sitting up straight in the cage, wide awake and staring at us all. His eyes were green, not red like they had been last night.

I waved. "Good morning Sonic, sorry we were so loud..."

He just yawned in response. He looked longingly at the box of cereal in Knuckles' hand.

Amy giggled. "It looks like somebody's hungry!"

Knuckles chuckled when Sonic flopped his tongue out the side of his mouth. "Just wait a bit, man. You can have as much as you want when the sun comes up."

I smiled. Sonic's managing to communicate with us without talking. It's actually pretty impressive. Only his second transformation, and he's already figuring out how to talk to us without the ability to speak. Sonic always was a fast learner.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sudden light streaming through the windows. It shined in my eyes before making its way towards Sonic.

As it hit him, he closed his eyes, and was quickly surrounded by a purple aura. When it faded away, Sonic was back to normal, and sitting cross-legged on the floor of the cage. He looked at the light, then at us, then back to the light.

He sighed. "So I guess this means I changed again... Can I have some of those Cheerios, Knuckles?" He got up and walked over to the door of the cage.

Good 'ol Sonic. I jogged over to the door release. I pressed the button and said the code. "Miles Prower." With a hiss, the door opened.

Sonic stepped out carefully, then smiled at us all. "So what happened to Egghead and the others?"

Knuckles tossed the cereal box to him. "Eggman left. He went back to his ship, but Shadow and Rouge are staying with us. They're probably still asleep right now. How are you, man?"

Sonic shrugged. "I'm fine. I don't remember sleeping, but I feel really well rested. How about you guys?" He grabbed a handful of Cheerios and tossed one in his mouth.

"I'm good, but I'm gonna go take the Master Emerald" Knuckles pointed to it, "back to Angel Island and try to figure out what's wrong with it there."

Sonic nodded. "Sounds good. I'll help, if you want."

Knuckles shook his head. "That's okay. I'll just go by myself. See you later, man." Knuckles walked over to the huge emerald, and picked it up.

Sonic waved. "Later, Knux." He tossed another Cheerio in the air and caught it in his mouth. He turned back to us. "So how about all of you? What's up?"

I shrugged. "We landed, and Shadow and Rouge decided to join us, but that's about it. I slept well."

Everyone else agreed, saying that they were fine and whatnot.

Sonic nodded. "Okay, well, who wants to go wake up Shadow and Rouge with me?"

Someone else answered from the doorway. "That won't be necessary." We all turned to see Shadow and Rouge walking in.

I waved. "Good morning, guys!"

Shadow shrugged. "If you say so."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "_Someone_ isn't a morning person."

Shadow sighed. "You say that _every_ morning."

Rouge grinned. "And every morning, its true."

Sonic chuckled. "So how are you two doing?"

"I'm fine." Shadow said.

"I'm spectacular!" Rouge grinned, throwing up her arms dramatically.

Sonic smiled again. "Great, does anybody wanna go for a run with me? I've been waiting far too long to stretch my legs."

I jumped up. "I'm coming!"

Shadow walked over. "I'd like to go as well."

Amy smiled. "You guys have fun, I'll start getting what we need, and I'm sure Cream wants to see her mom."

Sonic grinned and hugged Amy. "Thanks, Ames. Your great, I'll see you later!" He let go, and motioned for me and Shadow to follow him out of the bay. I waved to everybody and started running, getting my tails to start spinning behind me. Shadow jogged next to Sonic, who was running at a normal speed until we got out a bit more.

We got out to the hills pretty quickly, and Sonic began putting on the speed. Shadow activated his rocket shoes, and I went from a mixture of jogging and flying to full out flying just behind my best friend. When we reached about 30 miles per hour, Sonic threw both his arms back and leaned forward. He really sped up, and I started to have trouble keeping up with him. Shadow kept pace just fine though, and he skated quickly right next to Sonic.

"Woohoo!" Sonic grinned like a madman as we went over sixty. He sped up even more as we hit flat land, rather than hills. I pretty much fell back right there. Shadow and Sonic both kept speeding up and going faster, and faster. Far away from me, I heard two Sonic booms at the same time. I didn't really stand a chance of keeping up, so I turned around and flew back to the Blue Tycoon. I'm just glad that Sonic is happy.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog**

Geez, running is amazing. There is honestly no better thing in the universe. All I can do is smile as I kept going faster. I looked over my shoulder to see that Tails fell behind, but surprisingly, Shadow is keeping pace with me exactly. I thought he might get tired from his injuries or something, but he was still right next to me, head down, looking very determined. That guy is really impressive.

We kept laying on the speed when we hit the flat land. We both really sped up, and not long after that, we both broke the sound barrier. I love the feeling of the wind rushing through my quills, nothing can beat it. Not even chilidogs, but they come close. I felt like the faster I ran, the farther I left my problems behind. Anything can be outrun. I could outrun nighttime if I really tried. But then we got close to the city, and we had to slow down, or we could run into something. Like a car. We'd come a long way, we were several miles away from Station Square, where my friends and I live. We're in Apatos, which is two cities away. _**(AN: Yeah, I don't really care whether it is or isn't. It's the only other Sonic city I can think of right now, so deal with it.)**_

I slowed down to a jog, and Shadow deactivated his Rocket Shoes. I laughed happily from the run. Shadow was breathing a bit heavy, but I could tell he had enjoyed himself. He was even smiling a little.

I put a hand on his shoulder and grinned wider. "What a rush, right? You wanna grab something to eat?"

Shadow twisted his shoulder out of my grasp. "That was... Exhilarating. Yes, I'm rather hungry after that."

I grabbed his arm and dragged him behind me. "C'mon, I know a great place to eat here!"

Shadow followed reluctantly. "What is with you and grabbing me?" He complained.

I laughed. "Sorry, it's a habit. Anyways, you're part of the family now! You'll get used to it." I pulled him towards the shops. I would rather have chilidogs, but I figured Shadow might like this more.

"Family... Huh." Shadow mumbled. He sped up a little and jogged next to me rather than be dragged behind. "So where are we going?"

I smiled mischievously at him. "You'll see." We crossed the main road and walked up it a bit until I got to the shop I wanted. In red, cursive, neon letters, the sign read 'Plaza Pizza' I turned back to my companion as I pushed the door open. "Have you ever had pizza before?"

He shrugged. "Not that I can recall, what does it taste like?"

I grinned. "It's good, you'll like it." I ran up to the counter. The cashier guy recognised me.

He dropped what he was doing. "Sonic the Hedgehog! What an honour! Which pizza would you like?"

I put my elbow on the counter and gave the guy my best smile. "Chill, dude. I'd like a triple cheese pizza, please. Medium size. And do you do stuffed crust?"

He wrote my order down. "Yes, we do stuffed crusts, is that what you want?"

I winked. "Wouldn't have it any other way. So how much is that?"

He finished writing the order and handed the paper to someone in the kitchen area. "That's thirty rings, but you don't have to-"

I cut him off. "No, man. I'm paying for it." I pulled out thirty rings from my quills. I had plenty left. I handed them to him, and then dragged Shadow over to a table to wait.

Shadow sat down across from me. "What's stuffed crust?"

I laughed. "Only the best thing to ever happen to pizza! They put cheese in the crust, and then cook it. The cheese is all melted, and it tastes great!"

"Sounds good." He replied.

I shook my head. "I can't believe you've never had pizza before! _Everyone_ eats pizza."

He smirked. "Yes, but I'm not everyone."

I grinned right back. "You will be soon!"

Then our pizza arrived. It was still steaming hot, and it made my mouth water just looking at it. The guy cut the pizza up eight ways, then told us to enjoy it and left.

"Thanks!" I told him, then turned to Shadow. "First-timer gets first pick. Go ahead and choose a piece!"

Shadow chose the one with the most cheese on it. I went for the one with the thickest crust. We put it on our plates, and then Shadow looked at me, seeming confused.

"Uh, how do you eat this? I don't see a fork anywhere..."

I know its mean, but I couldn't help myself, I laughed. I laughed a lot. When I finally stopped, I looked to see him more confused than before.

He sounded perplexed. "I don't understand, did I do something wrong?"

I grinned. "No, no. You're funny Shadow. You don't use a fork to eat pizza! You just pick it up with your hands and bite it. Like this." I took a bite of my slice.

He shook his head. "I don't get what's so funny..." He picked up his slice like I had and took a bite as well. He looked like he was trying too hard. I ended up laughing again because when he went to put it back down, he ended up pulling all the cheese off with it. He gave up and put his pizza down. "I don't think I like pizza. It is by far the weirdest thing I've ever tried to eat."

I rolled my eyes. "You just have to get used to eating it right, but come on, it tastes good, doesn't it?"

He shrugged. "I suppose so."

I had an idea. "Here, try this." I folded my pizza slice in half, so all the cheese was on the inside. "That should make it easier to eat."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll try it." He folded his pizza like mine, and bit it without any problems. "Wow, when its not being a pain, this stuff tastes really good!"

I smiled. "I knew you'd like it." Once we got past that issue, the whole pizza was gone in less than ten minutes.

Shadow leaned back. "That was really good. I'll have to have that again sometime."

I grinned and licked my fingers. "Yes you do. Pizza is great! Next time we'll have a different topping." I got up. "C'mon, let's go back to the others. They're probably wondering where we are."

Shadow looked around. "I just noticed, where did Tails go?"

I shrugged. "He fell back, he probably went back to the ship. Don't worry about him, he's fine."

I walked out of the shop, and Shadow followed me. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yup. Tails usually does that when I get going really fast."

"Okay." He started jogging out of the city with me.

~~~Later~~~

We got back to station square, and I headed back to my house. Shadow came too, because he wasn't sure which way the ship was.

We got to my house. It was unlocked, as usual. I told Shadow he could wait on the couch, then I ran up my stairs. I flung open the door to my room, then I flopped down on my bed. I was glad to be back in my own room, I missed this place.

I relaxed for a few seconds, then shot upright. My dresser was shaking. I stared at it in confusion. The only things I kept in there were my extra socks and extra gloves, and...

~To be Continued~

**AN: Yeah, I'm really sorry I haven't been writing very fast. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! (PS: I feel like my grammar is getting worse ._. I have a lot of trouble with POV and past/present/future tense, sorry! Please tell me what I should improve!)**

**MORE OF THE AWESOME LONG ROLEPLAY!**

***with envytheskunk on deviantart: **** ***

***blaze sets her fists on fire***

**Blaze: Amy, you did **_**what**_**?!**

**Amy: *waves hand carelessly* cool it, Blaze, he's fine. Vanilla said so. Its his fault anyways.**

**Blaze: HIS fault?! What I heard is that YOU hit him!**

**Amy: hey, I can't help it if he's in the way when I toss my hammer! Maybe he should just get faster, like my Sonic!**

***blaze's face turns red in anger, her whole arms catch fire***

**Sonic: Amy... Maybe you should run...**

**Amy: No way! I'm not a coward!**

**Tikal: Girls! Please stop fighting! There's already enough evil in the world as it is! *clasps hands in prayer***

**Blaze: *fire dims a little* fine. But only for you, Tikal. **

**Tikal: Thank you. Maybe you should go to Silver now. He probably needs you.**

**Amy: yeah, When we left he was babbling about rainbow mushrooms, he needs you more than you need to be angry with me.**

**Silver: Mama Mia! That's a bigga meat ball!**

**Sonic: ah! Where did Mario come from?! *looks and sees its just Silver* Silver! What the heck are you doing here?! I thought we left you at Cream's place!**

**Silver: *imitating tweety* I 'thot I 'taw a putty tat!**

**Blaze: cat? That's me! Silver, honey, are you okay?! Where did she hit you?!**

**Silver: I did! I did taw a putty tat *randomly kisses Blaze and let go quickly*!**

**Shadow: I had enough of this nonsense *sucker punches Silver which makes him faint again*. That's should get Silver back to normal. If not, at least we don't have to deal with that squeaky fern head anymore.**

**Blaze: *stunned from kiss* wha- what just... *snaps out of it* Shadow! How dare you hit Silver! *bursts into flame***

**Shadow: meh, he was getting on my nerves. *finishes Swiss roll and licks fingers***

***More next chapter...***


End file.
